Remember
by Keruseya Natsuki
Summary: As children, they were best friends. After the accident, he despised her. After long years of pain, he finally noticed her again. After the second accident, she didn’t remember him. [NejiHinata, angstromance]
1. Chapter 1

As children, they were best friends. After the accident, he despised her. After long years of pain, he finally noticed her again. After the second accident, she didn't remember him.

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Two or three sets of steady beeps were the first sounds the indigo-haired sixteen year old heard as she slowly woke from what seemed like an incredibly long slumber. Her breath still even, she decided not to open her eyes. Not that she could, for that matter. Each eyelid felt as if it were glued shut... how long had she been asleep?

She uttered a small, hoarse cough as one set of beeps gradually sped up. No matter how much she tried to block it out, it was still there, and it wouldn't go away. She attempted at rolling over, but her entire body was acting like dead weight. Even her attempt at lifting her hand was useless. Why wasn't her body responding?

In search of some answers, she willed her eyes slowly open. Her eyelids fluttered as bright light shot crept past them, and within a minute she had her bleached purple orbs half open. After her eyes adjusted to the invading light, she slowly glanced around the room. Many tall machines with lights, buttons, lines and switches were the sources of the rather annoying beeps, she noticed, as they towered over her on one side. She appeared to be in a bed, but that didn't make any sense to why she couldn't move.

Flicking her eyes with more speed to her other side, where there were no extremely-tall creepy beepy machines, she saw a familiar girl with short pink hair, and a doctor's apron on. What was the girl's name? Wait... what was her _own_ name? Surely she should remember!

She shut her eyes once more, digging through her mind for her name. As she struggled to find it, the other girl's eyes batted open as she also woke up.

The pink-haired kunoichi glanced warily at the body on the bed, scanning it for any movements. Sighing when there was no motions, she stood up and quietly walked over to the biggest of the vital sign recording machines, noticing a recent change in the scribble-like line pattern. What could that one little rise mean...?

To her left, the brain signal machine's beep went out of control.

"Oh, gosh!" she yelped, dashing but a step over to check out that machine's results. Just like the other, there were new lines -longer lines- going up and down upon the screen, as if there was actually something going on in the bed-ridden female's mind.

"Ah! Tsunade, come here! Hurry!" the kunoichi yelled, dashing to the door and stepping out into the hall. Hearing a distant reply and many pairs of footsteps heading up the stairs, the pink-haired girl dashed back to the bed.

"Hey! Are you... are you awake? Hinata!?"

The sleepy girl on the bed stopped racking her memory. Had she just heard... that was it! Hinata! Her name was Hinata! She attempted a smile in this newfound victory, forgetting about the hint until she attempted at understanding the rest of the pink-head's question. Maybe... just maybe... she should open her eyes again.

The lavender orbs peeked open once again, and all Hinata could manage was a light grumble from her throat, so strange-sounding that she almost couldn't believe it was her own cracked voice. The pink-haired girl was leaning over her, smiling and appeared close to tears. Why should she be crying? She wasn't the one who was totally mortified that she couldn't even move a finger. Trying to attempt that just one more time, Hinata verified that she was still unable to do so.

The girl above her sniffed. "You're back... I'm so happy... Hinata... Hinata..." she cried. Behind her, the indigo haired girl saw three more people come barging into the room. In the lead was a green-and-grey clad, blonde-haired lady with an incredible bust.

"Doctor, tend to the machines. Shizune, get the girl some water, and lots of towels and nutrition. Great job, Sakura, thanks for letting us know. Now, please get out of the way." the lady commented quickly. Hinata merely looked up at her.

"Yes, ma'am." Sakura whispered, quickly moving aside as the huge blonde lady ran up to the side of the bed.

"Hinata! Hinata Hyuuga! Can you respond?" whispered the lady as she peered into Hinata's white-ish eyes. "Damn, it's hard to tell if a Hyuuga is unconscious or not, their eyes are always the same."

"No, ma'am, she opened her eyes and looked at me, she's awake..."

"... I see. Okay, Hinata, can you move your head? Nod if you can." noted Tsunade.

Hinata glared at Tsunade for the comment about her family, though she had no idea what the lady meant by it. Shutting her eyes temporarily and ignoring the comments made when she did so, she put all her willpower into tilting her head upwards, letting it drop back to her chest, lifting it up again, and dropping it. Finally, she opened her eyes once more, nearly out of breath from the small movements.

"That's... interesting. Well, can't blame you if you've been in bed for a year. Ah well, doctor, pull out the cords. Sakura, please go use the phone and call the Hyuuga Clan line. They need to know that their leader has finally awoken."

A white-masked man who Hinata didn't recognise nodded, and Hinata felt a small, sharp pain in her arm, followed by many bandages. She attempted at saying something in protest, but managed no more than a few high-pitched sharp squeaks. Focusing back on the lady's previous words to block out the pain, she nearly gasped as she understood.

The were calling her Clan. _Her _Clan. Hadn't the Tsunade lady just called her a leader?

But... that must mean that her father was... dead...? In shock, she tried to picture her father, but the image came up blank. She tried to picture anyone from her Clan... to no avail. She couldn't remember...

"Mi-" she squeaked. Coughing as a way of clearing her throat, she tried again. "Ma.. my.. my... cla... n?She choked, forcing out the words as mere syllables, trying to get her voice used to the strange sounds.

Tsunade and Shizune (who had just entered the room, and heard Hinata's wavering voice) paused where they were, exchanged nervous glances, and looked at Hinata.

Shizune drew a shaky breath. "Um, we'll get to that later, okay? You need to eat." the black-haired woman muttered, glancing away as she and her teacher went back to what they were doing. Tsunade shuffled over to Hinata once more.

"Okay, girlie, let's get you sitting up." she sighed. The large woman snuck a strong hand under the weak kunoichi's back, and pulled her upright. With a small amount of force, Tsunade then pushed her back so that she would be propped against a mound of plush pillows. Caught off guard by the sudden switch of position, Hinata nearly flopped back down like some sort of rag doll. Using her small amount of strength, the dreary-eyed girl forced her body to stay upright against the mountain of pillows.

Sakura dashed back into the room, a half-kimono folded neatly over one arm.

"They said they're on their way, and when I asked how many, they said three, possibly four. I brought a top for Hinata, anyhow, because she might want to be wearing more than just a fishnet top in front of the guys." she exclaimed, rushing over to Tsunade and Hinata with a white covering top. Looking down self-consciously, Hinata noticed with a faint blush that she was indeed wearing only a fishnet top with black material across her bust.

"Who... who is cah... comin'?" the young girl squeaked at Sakura, eyes wide.

Sakura paused for a moment, noticing the arrival of her former companion's voice. "Ah, Neji, Hanabi, the Elder, and possibly Kiba if they can get a hold of him. Do you remember?"

Hinata looked at Sakura blankly. "Uh... re-mem-ber... Ki-ba, yes." Hinata croaked, smiling and attempting a nod. All three of the other females in the room once again paused and looked at her, waiting. Sakura gulped.

"Hinata... what about the others? Do you remember Hanabi, or Neji, or the Elder?" Sakura asked her quietly, although the other two female ninjas could probably guess the question.

The pink-haired girl's eyes widened after a long pause from Hinata, and Tsunade cursed out loud, moving Sakura away for a minute.

"H-Hinata... dear god, tell me you remember your family..." Tsunade said in a barely-audible whisper. The look on her face made Hinata's eyes swell up in tears. Was there someone she wasn't supposed to forget? '_Think, brain! Who are those people!?_' she mentally yelled at herself.

She went back to thinking of Kiba first. Where had she seen him last?

'_It hadn't been that hard of a mission. I was returning with my group... yes, Kurenai-sensei, Kiba, Shino and me... we had just finished that mission with the tracking of Jiichi, the cloud-ninja.We were merely returning home._

_That's it! It was then those four creepy ninja in black coats jumped us... so close to home.. we weren't even paying attention. Kurenai and Shino were in front of me and Kiba, who was showing me how Akamaru could now say my name. I had laughed, looked up, and saw... him jumping... at me.'_

"Aaaaaaaaagggghh!" Hinata screeched, the memory flooding her. That's all she could remember of that night, before having gone sub-conscious with many pains ripping, tearing through her small body. They had picked on her, the weakling of the group. What had happened to the others? Sakura rushed back to Hinata's side, shushing the bawling Hyuuga girl and comforting her the best she could.

"Wha... what hap-pen to Shi-no an' sen-sei then?" Hinata sniffed. Sakura nearly choked back tears herself at these few words said by Hinata.

"I'll let Kiba explain... that." the kunoichi said, turning away as Shizune walked up to Hinata with a warm, sugary blend of fruits in a cup with a straw. Hinata let her thoughts trail off to different ideas while sipping the mix, then eventually came up with some questions that really wanted answers.

"Whe-re amI...?"

"The hospital."

"What da... day is't?"

"Umm... it's Thursday, I think. March 28th." Sakura thought hard. "Yeah, sounds right."

Hinata's eyes widened. "M-March? How long ha-ve I bin' here?" she asked, stunned, her voice slowly returning to normal.

Tsunade smiled sadly. "Hinata, you've been here for eight months. Since August... Hinata, you've been in a coma."

"C-coma?"

"Comatose state, so you can't eat properly, drink properly, breathe on your own, or be woken up until your body decides to either let you live once more, or... you die."

"Oh..."

"Yes, but, Hinata, you're okay. Once we get your muscles moving and stretched out, and after we help you remeber everyone and... everything, then you'll be back to normal. Okay?" Tsunade said, a bit of hidden discouragement in her voice.

"Oh, o-kay." Hinata replied, smiling and still sipping her drink.

There was a knock on the door.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey peoplez! Sorry for not posting author's notes on the first chapter. Gawd, the chapter was unbelievably short. This one's not too much longer, but hey, good things come in small packages. Especially Edo-kun from Fullmetal Alchemist. That chibi rocks.**

**So, here's the much-awaited chapter two. Thank you everyone who posted for the premier chapter, happee happee. I don't know the names off by heart, and I can't look them up because I'm starting this chapter on a computer that has no internet... sigh.**

**Anyways, here's the reactions to Hinata by her family & friend... 'fluffy sadness'...**

**Keruseya Natsuki (Seya-san)**

**Remember- Chapter 2**

_There was a knock on the door..._

The eyes of everyone in the room shot towards the entrance to the room.

"Just a minute!" Shizune called, help Hinata into the white wrap-around top. The indigo-haired kunoichi struggled to lift her small arms, finally slipping them in through the sleeves as Sakura went to answer the door. Shaking Hinata's long, chest-length hair quickly, Tsunade moved aside.

"Hey, guys, come in!" Sakura greeted them, and a young girl, nearly identical to herself rushed in through the door first. Runnning over to Hinata, the eleven-year-old leapt onto the bed, wrapping her arms protectively around her the wary teen.

"Hinata! You're alive!" she yelped, tears breaking free of her creamy white eyes to roll freely over her cheeks. Hinata looked shocked for a minute, then smiled back, returning the stranger's hug as three more figures appeared at the door.

"Ah?" Hinata said quietly. She noticed Kiba behind the little girl, and motioned for the girl to step out of the way. The brown-haired teen approached her slowly, smiling sadly.

"Hey, Hinata. Glad you're back." he whispered, trying not to cry. He sat down beside her on the bed, and looked her in the eyes. "We're the only ones left, you know that?" he whispered.

Hinata's lavender eyes went wide. Left? What did Kiba mean? Who were the other people? What... where were Kurenai-sensei and Shino? The thoughts pushed themselves to the front of her mind, but she knew that she could only say few words at a time.

"Whe-re are them?" she squeaked back, knowing that she had made a mistake somewhere in her words. Kiba stared at her hard, and shook his head as a tear threatened to roll over his cheek. Hinata gaped at him, now expecting the worst. She had never seen Kiba... cry.

"They were killed... Hinata... Kurenai-sensei, and Shino, and even Akamaru." he growled, knitting his eyebrows and putting his head in his hands. "You... don't remember." he whispered, hiding his eyes from her. Hinata mumbled an apology, and Kiba began to explain.

"When we were coming home, four Akatsuki members -the missing nin- jumped us, and you were... ah... well, they got Kurenai-sensei almost instantly. We were all knocked unconscious. I didn't see what happened to Akamaru, thank god... but when I woke up... You and Shino were in comas, and Akamaru was dead. We were so off guard... we all just wanted to get home after our successful mission. Hah." he sniffed. "Shino's coma ended two months ago. He... died, though, didn't even get out of the comatose state. You got lucky... I thought I'd be alone."

Hinata stared at him, once again unable to speak. Everyone was dead? That wasn't possible! Kurenai-sensei was incredibly strong! She could have fought them off... right? Hinata looked away, tears blurring her vision and rendering her somewhat blind. She heard Kiba sniff a few more times, and felt him grab her hand as a way of comforting both of them.

Kiba looked at her again, his eyes red and a bit puffy. "But, hey. You're leading a Clan now, right? That should be interesting. So much has happened... you know, you've been asleep for eight months- that's almost a year."

Hinata nodded quietly, and then remembered the other people in the room. They looked so strange... who were they? She looked at Sakura questioningly.

Sakura had caught her glance at them. "Ah, Hanabi, Neji and the Elder. You remember?"

Hinata didn't drop her gaze. No, she didn't remember. Was she supposed to? She slowly shook her head. There were gasps from around the room, and she noticed that one of them, the teenage boy with long hair, was staring straight at her. She looked him in the eye, and she noticed that there was more than just worry in his faded purple orbs. Was there... hurt?

The young girl who had jumped on her started crying. Why?

"H-Hinata don't you r-remember me? I'm your s-sister!" she screamed. The older lady behind her shushed the bawling girl, holding her as the young kunoichi struggled to the bed once again. Hinata looked on with eyes full of angst.

Hinata looked at her. She had a sister? Was the boy her brother, then?

"Ah, I'm sor-ry." she replied. Looking back at the tall boy, she asked him the very question she had just thought over. "Are you my bro-ther?"

He looked at her again, his hard lavender eyes softening and his lips curving downwards into a frown. "No, Hinata. I'm your cousin, Neji." he sighed, walking over and crouching beside Kiba on the bed. "You really don't remember."

"No. Sor-ry."

The young girl, Hanabi, bawled even louder. The Elder held her close, muttering things like, 'Poor lady Hinata...' or, 'This can't be good for the future of Hyuuga.'

Neji continued to look at her, face blank and seeming emotionless. "Are you able to run the Clan, now? I've been helping Hanabi for the last five months. Your father's gone too, you know. The Akatsuki got him as well."

Hinata thought hard. Run a Clan that she remembered nothing about? That wouldn't be a good idea... But if they needed her...

"Ah, on-ly if you and Ha-na-bi can help me." she whispered. "I real-ly want to re-mem-ber... so can you help me?" she asked quietly.

Neji sighed. This was going to be difficult. If Hinata couldn't remember anything other than what happened the day of the attack... she really did need help. But Neji had another thought to deal with. Before that day... he had only begun to warm up to her. All those years of his life, he had hated her, detested her, and now... she was asking him to help her. She didn't even know him anymore...

Which meant, she probably didn't even remember their childhood.

"I'll help you."

It was probably the most unsure thing he had ever said. He had agreed to help his cousin, who he had claimed to have killed his father, his idol... he looked at Hanabi, still bawling in her grandmother's arms, and to the caretakers, Sakura, Tsunade and Shizune. They smiled at him.

"Thank you," she sighed, as he looked back into her face, their lavender-white matching eyes making contact once more. "Cousin Ne-ji."

Hinata was overly grateful. Her cousin looked away, obviously deep in thought, as he rested a bandage-covered hand on her blanket-covered foot. He sighed, and she returned her eyes to her younger sister.

"Hana-bi, you too? Please?" she begged sadly, her voice becoming smoother again.

The young girl once again looked up at her, wet eyes still leaving red marks down her pale cheeks.

"Of course, sister! I want you to remember, I really do!" she giggled. She crept over and sat down once again beside Hinata, laying back against the pillows to immitate her big sister. The younger girl grabbed Hinata's free hand (Kiba was still grasping the other) as she smiled.

Neji, out of his daze, looked up at Tsunade.

"Hey... is it okay if Kiba, Hinata and I talk alone for a while?" he asked quietly. Tsunade looked at him questioningly, but then gave him an understanding look and nodded.

"Ah, okay. Hanabi, we're going to give Hinata and the boys a few minutes alone. Come on, let's get you some candy out on the front desk." Tsunade directed, looking at the Elder and Shizune. Sakura stood up quietly, and opened the door. The ladies shuffled out, Hanabi clinging to the Elder's arm and talking about little pink bubblegums. The door shut quietly behind them.

"What is't, cousin Neji?" Hinata asked, looking at him as she painfully moved around more comfortably in her less-crowded bed.

Neji frowned again, and looked at from Kiba back to Hinata. "Hinata... there's the part that Kiba left out... you do know what had happened that day... right? He couldn't say it in front of Hanabi..."

"What... ah?" she asked. Kiba put his hand gently on her thigh.

"Hinata... those men raped you." he whispered, as if people were standing right outside the door, listening. "They made me and Shino watch."

Hinata stared at him. Did she not remember that? Closing her eyes, she concentrated once more on the events of that night.

'_That's right. He had jumped at me. I was knocked roughly to the ground, and Kiba had immediatly jumped after me, yelling for help. I had heard Kurenai-sensei scream..._

_The man, he had long blonde hair, covering one eye and the rest swept up into some kind of explosive-looking ponytail.He grinned in a way that was burned into my mind, and held me down by my neck. Even as I tried to scream, I was too shocked, merely grabbing and ripping at his wrist pressed down on my windpipe._

_I heard Kiba yell shouts of anger, and saw three kunai zoom past the black-coated man's head. The man -about twenty-one, I'd say- released his death grip as he swung a shuriken at Kiba. That's when I took my oppurtunity to use the Gentle Fist. He punched me, and I coughed up blood. Cursing, he had then pulled off my jacket, hands roaming over my fishnet top._

_Kiba has leapt at him, only to be pinned down by a blue-skinned, demon-like man with a giant sword. Seconds later Shino was roughly thrown into the scene, and was trapped by a medium-sized teen with dark blue hair. I could hear another of them laugh somewhere behind me... but my attention was focused elsewhere._

_The blonde man above me grinned once again, and as his hands went towards the rim of my pants, I had cried...'_

Hinata's stiff body shuddered as new tears broke free from thier bonds and rivered down her cheeks. She screamed as she re-lived the horrid moments, struggling with her protesting muscles to bring her knees to her chest for protection. She shut her eyes tight in agony, and continued to scream. Why had they made her bring that back up?

Neji leapt onto the bed and crawled up beside her quickly, swearing and shaking her shoulders. Kiba grabbed her wrists, trying to talk to her calmly as she wailed quietly.

"Hinata... you're okay now." he whispered, barely heard over her sobs of anguish. "That was before, 'kay? It's over. All... over." he shushed her, placing a single finger over her lips as she tilted her head back up, shaking quietly. Neji slowly let go of the teen's shoulders, sighing sadly with the thought of just how much pain the girl must have been feeling- so much bad and scary news was being loaded into her mind at once.

"Hey, just don't think about it for now. Tonight the doctors are going to re-examine you, and probably keep you overnight. They said they needed to check the scars, and if possible Hanabi, Kiba and I can probably bring you home tomorrow." Neji pointed out with a soft smile. Hinata looked at him, and nodded with a smile of her own.

"And then you can show me a-round, right?" the blue-headed kunoichi asked.

Neji's smile flickered. "Yes."

"Thank you."

And she leaned over slowly.

It hadn't been expected. When Hinata had fallen towards him, he hadn't expected a hug. Yet despite what he had imagined, he felt her thin arms and small hands wrap around to the back of his shirt, and stiffened when her face fell into the crook of his neck. She took a deep breath, inhaling his scent- even if she could not remember him, something about him was familiar.

Neji sat up straight, not daring to move, his eyes wide. He made a kind of inside gasping sound, and stared down at the warm body against his own. Almost instinctively, he put his hand on her back, running it through her long hair.He felt unbelievably awkward.

"Ah, you're welcome, Hinata..."

He heard a snigger from Kiba, and looked up at the dog-boy sitting on the other side of the person wrapped around him. The teen covered his mouth with a clawed hand, grinning at how his senior was acting like some kind of wooden board.

"Hey, Hinata, don't I get a hug too?" He called lightly. Hinata removed her head from Neji's neck, and turning around, muttered 'Right.' She flopped over to Kiba after Neji relaxed, landing on her best friend and nearly knocking him off the edge of the bed. Unlike Neji, Kiba grasped the girl tightly to his chest, smothering her small body within the bear hug.

"Ki-ba!" she squeaked, writhing to get out of the grip that seemed all-too-familiar with her previous memory. He chuckled and slowly let her go, brushing his lips across her cheek. Hinata blushed, and playfully pushed him away.

Neji watched the two, trying to keep his emotions from showing. As she laughed quietly and cuddled with Kiba, he realised that he had lost her. The Hinata that he had begun to adore had forgotten him as easily as falling asleep- and not waking up with memories from over half her life, for that matter.

Sadly, he looked at them, still joking around. With a sigh disguised as a yawn, he crossed his arms over his knees, and rested his head on his wrists. He wanted her back. He wanted the Hinata that had had begun to look up to him as a friend instead of an enemy, the Hinata that was his focus, and not his burden. He wanted her to remember him, and not ask who he was.

With heavy eyes full of need, he rolled over and lay down on the bed, facing away from the frolicking duo. As he closed his eyes and prepared for a well-deserved nap, one memory of her about a week before the incident sprung up.

_It was a warm midsummer night, and I was walking home with Hinata from her training grounds. I was behind her, watching her shoulder-length hair swish back and forth as she walked. She sang a little tune, then abruptly turned to face me with a questioning look. Stopping in my tracks, I had looked at her, waiting for her to ask the question she wanted._

_When she had paused, I walked up beside her, and glanced into her blushing face._

"_What is it?" I had asked a little roughly. For a second, she had flinched away. I had mentally smacked myself. Then, quietly, she asked,_

"_Cousin Neji, has there ever been something that... that you desired so much... something that I can give you?"_

_I had merely stared at her. If I said what I had really desired, my fifteen-year-old cousin would probably shy away to her best friend Kiba. I wanted her to love me as I secretly did her. I'd never say it. It'd never come true._

"_No." I replied too shyly, quickly glancing away. Without a second thought, I began to walk again. When she didn't follow, I stopped impatiently, and turned around to glare half-heartedly a her. There she stood, still staring at the ground, twiddling her fingers lamely._

"'_Cause Neji, I know that you're smart, and strong, so you could get whatever you want, and I'd want to help you. I want to be just like you."_

_That was the statement that had totally changed his view about her._

Neji grinned inwardly as Hinata and Kiba paused, thinking he was asleep. He felt Hinata lay her small hand on his head, stroking his long brown hair. Making no attempt to stop her, and showing no signs of faking his consciousness, Neji remembered her line once more.

'_You could get whatever you want.'_

He would get her back.

**Yay! I'll try and post all the reviewers at the beginning of next chapter. 'Kay? How do you like my first multi-chapter Naruto fic?**

**Seya-san...**

**PS- **

**Neggi-kun (Neji), **

**Ita-kun (Itachi) **

**Soggy-kun (Sasuke - blame the name on my little sis, I'll explain later) and **

**Shika-kun (Shikamaru)**

**Are MINE. If you ask nicely and give Soggy-kun a blueberry muffin, I may share.**

**See ya.**

**Seya (lol)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Aah, ok. Chapter three. Hmm... oh yeah, the reviewers for chapter one, and, as many as I could for chapter two: **

- NoireDragon12

- onototellingoyou

- -x-Taylor-x-

- BlackSnowPetals

-raggedywings

Soggy-kun gives you blueberry muffins. Thanks, guys, for all your support.

Hmm... no real ideas for this chapter, so it'll just go as it comes to my mind. This may be inconvieniently short and somewhat uninteresting? Nah. Hope not. Full of angstliniss, sad stuff, and absolute fluff. Oh, and Soggy's in this one!

Keruseya Natsuki

Remember- Chapter 3

_'You could get whatever you want.' _

He would get her back.

It was rare for Neji Hyuuga to ask anyone if they could help him with a problem. Reason number one: Neji didn't usually _have_ problems. Reason number two: Well, Neji didn't like asking for help. That's why, when Neji invited Sasuke over one very fine March morning, the Uchiha teen had agreed right away without a second thought.

It surprised Sasuke even more when Neji said he needed help at the hospital.

At seven o'clock in the morning as the dawn sun had just set up above the horizon line, Sasuke woke up, got changed, and made his way across town from the Uchiha estate to the Konohagakure Hospital. Upon arriving, he had no trouble finding his the Hyuuga senior, as the minute he stepped in through the hospital entrance, he found Neji supporting the weight of his younger cousin on his shoulder. Neji glanced up, and saw Sasuke staring.

"Ah, Uchiha. Can you get her other side? We gotta teach her how to walk again." he stated. To Hinata, he added, "This is Sasuke Uchiha. I don't know if you remember him or not, but he's the same age as you. You knew him."

Hinata looked up and met Sasuke's confused coal-black eyes. She smiled timidly, and began to duck away when he approached, holding out an arm.

"Hey, Hinata. I'm going to help you, okay? What happened?" Sasuke mouthed to Neji.

Neji smiled weakly. "There's no need to ask so quietly. Hinata, do you want to explain?"

"..."

Neji sighed. "Guess not. Well, you heard about the accident last August, right, Uchiha?" Sasuke nodded. "Hinata was sent into a coma. The only person she remembered when she woke up yesterday was Kiba... and the others, but..."

"Oh... I'm sorry. Don't worry, Hinata. I won't attack you." Sasuke commented with a warm smile. (A/N: Wanna blueberry muffin? lol)

"...thank you." She said, accepting his outstetched arm to spread her weight out a bit more evenly. Concentrating hard on her feet, she put one foot quickly in front of the other, and toppled.

Neji caught her quickly under the arm before she hit the ground, and, stumbling, he hoisted her back upright with Sasuke's help. Quivering, she sighed, and put a foot ahead again, but much slower. With much caution she shifted her weight onto the front foot, and brought the other forward, repeating the slow process.

Within the hour, the threesome arrived at the gates to the Hyuuga Clan Estate house. At once, Hanabi ran out to greet them, with a few other Hyuuga's at her tail. All of them surrounded the slowly-moving three, asking questions Hinata didn't want to hear, and shoving their way to the front of the crowd to see their handicapped leader.

Neji swatted them away, telling Hinata that she could dismiss the Clan at any time if she felt uncomfortable. At this, she glanced up to Neji's brotherly concerned face, and nodded.

"I'd like to... to have privacy time with Hyuuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke if you'd please. This is... I guess... an order. Resume your duties." she stated, loud enough for the surrounding group to hear. Neji and Sasuke smiled.

"Great job." Sasuke whispered. Hinata returned with a smile.

"Is that what I was supposed to say?" she asked Neji. He looked down at her, eyes gleaming with brilliance and knowing.

"Hinata, you sounded like you've been leader for years. That was amazing." he grinned as the crowd dispersed. "Now, where would you like to go first?"

Hinata looked down, losing her smile. "The cemetery."

Neji and Sasuke looked at each other, eyes full of concern.

"You, ah... sure?" Sasuke asked.

Looking up, Hinata's eyes were wet, and tears were leaking down her cheeks. She nodded, and rubbed an arm across her eyes. "Yes. But I want to go pick some flowers first." she sniffed happily.

Neji smiled sympathetically. " Okay."

Holding her by the arms once again, Sasuke and Neji supported Hinata as she stumbled across the clearing, on their way to the Konoha cemetery.

Upon reaching the cemetery, the three had their arms full of flowers. Hinata had a wide assortment, yet held mostly lavender-coloured irises and yellow tulips. Neji had a snigle, small blue lily, and Sasuke held a bunch of red and white mixed flowers for the colours of his own family members.

As they opened the rusty iron gate, Hinata stumbled forwards, proving that she could now carry herself to some extent. On seeing this, Sasuke nodded to the Hyuugas' saying that he would meet back with them sometime later, and headed off to the section reserved for the Uchiha Clan only. Neji nodded, and he and Hinata went off in search of the graves of Hinata's team.

Within a few minutes, they had found the grave of Aburame Shino, and Yuuhi Kurenai was merely two headstones in front of it. Neji stood back and looked on with sad eyes as Hinata broke down and cried in front of her adoptive-mother's headstone. The wind swept her long indigo hair gently, blowing across her face as the fifteen-year-old closed her eyes to grieve. Feeling her pain, and finally deciding to be with her, Neji strode quietly over to her, taking the tie out of his own hair and putting it in hers. His long, forgiving fingers held her hair carefully, making sure not to pull it too hard or to tie the string too tight. She sniffed, rubbing her eyes once again, and he sat down on the ground beside her.

She looked at him, studying his face carefully. Showing to an extent the feelings he had tried to hide for so long, he smiled gently back and swept a piece of hair out of her eyes that he had missed, tucking it behind her ear. Without warning, she bawled him over onto the ground, snuggling herself into his neck for the second time since she woke up.

Neji sighed as his loose hair flew everywhere. With a startled grunt, he hit the grass, cushioning Hinata with his chest as she lay half-ontop of him. From his position on the ground, he rolled his eyes up to stare her in the face. She glanced innocently back down at him, and giggled quietly. Half-amused, half-annoyed by the sudden shock and the flying of his long hair, he closed his eyes and sighed. Words weren't needed here. Body language was voice enough.

They layed there for who knows how long, the flowers nearly forgotton on Kurenai's tombstone, and the wind slowly dying. Neji, finally out of his daze, opened his eyes and blinked in the noon sunlight. Without moving, he felt Hinata's breathing, and confirmed that she was asleep.

Raising himself out from under her, he spotted Sasuke heading back towards them empty-handed. Neji waved him over, motioning for the younger boy to be quiet. Sasuke glanced at the young girl's sleeping body as he approached, then back up to her older cousin's face.

Neji sighed. "Will you watch her for a few minutes? I have to go visit one of the other graves." he pleaded quietly. Sasuke nodded in submission, and Neji stalked off without a sound, single blue lily in hand.

He looked around for a minute, then finally spotted a stone he had visited not more than three weeks before. Walking up to it, he read the name aloud: Lord Hyuuga Hiashi; his uncle.

Kneeling down before the large stone, Neji recited the events of the past two days. Some people might say he was crazy, trying to explain 'coma' to a dead person, but, then again, it's not like Neji would ever tell this personal stuff to anybody else. Removing his forehead protector in respect, he gave light to the mark that classed him as a cadet, or branch family member.

Finished with his instruction, Neji stood up without losing visual contact with the carved stone, and replaced his headband. Placing his lily on the top, and securing it with wire, he turned, and walked away from the memorial site.

When Neji returned to his cousin and friend, he got help to bring Hinata up on his back to carry her home. Turning away from Sasuke as they left the graveyard, he whispered a word of thanks andstarted the trek to the Hyuuga estate once more.

Mid-journey, Hinata woke up with a shiver and a small yawn.

"Ne...Neji?" she asked with a small voice. Neji nudged her cheek with his head lightly.

"You're awake, hn? Sorry. What is it?" he rebounded.

"I... I think I'm starting to remember you..." she whispered, and nuzzled the back of his neck, burying her face in his silky chocolate-coloured hair.

Neji smiled. Just as he predicted. "Thank you."

**Hmm... yes... much too short. But, hey, it was a spur-of-the-moment-horridly-cute-idea kind of thing. Y'know? Mwahaha, I love my Neggi-kun's hair. Soggy-kun's homemade muffins are good too! Anyone who I catch reviewing will get a muffin, 'kay?**

**I'm gonna work on this in my Grade 10 computer class to-morrow. It's tough being the only Grade 9 in the class. Hah!**

**Have a happee happee night! Night! Yeah, it's... 11:11pm.**

See ya---- xox

Seya-san


	4. Chapter 4

**Hiya once again...**

I'm here to say that, unlike in one of my other stories (about Fullmetal Alchemist) I hopefully WILL be finishing this. Hmm. Yeah, once I figure out how I want it to end...

But with what I have in store now, there will be more character death(s) later on. Sad ones. Ones that you'll never EVER forgive me for (I'm sorry... dramatic wail) well, maybe not that harsh. But hey, everyone's gotta make sacrifices, right?

This is going to be a long author's comment. Maybe. Depends on how I feel. Now, the reviewers for the last chapter, and any other old reviewers and friends. Oh yeah, wanted to say that if you want a preview of how sad I can REALLY make deaths, read my other fic 'Long Live the Memories'- it's focused on Soggy-kun (Sasuke) and when I showed it to friends at school who hate/have never heard of Naruto, they told me it was unbelievably sad. One started crying, lol. That was funny.

It was my first attempt at a Naruto fanfiction, but I love it. It's a one-shot, and it's done! Happy! Happy HAPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Actually, horribly sad, but oh well!

Hmm... should I start the story about now? I guess... this should be a somewhat descriptive (hey, I'm gonna try for once), but I can't promise it'll be AMAYZIN'. 'Kay?

Keruseya Natsuki (Seya-san)

* * *

Remember- Chapter Three 

Soft light was drifting into the large room silently as Hinata woke peacefully, snuggled into a set of extremely comfy, soft pillows and blankets. Smiling, she nuzzled the cushy white fabric, adoring it's habit of giving in lightly when she pressed against it. Sub-conscious, she opened her bleached violet eyes halfway and peered at the familiar room. Was she...?

"...home?" she whispered quietly, as expecting some invisible person to answer her question. Rolling over a bit more awakened by her curiosity, she confirmed it was her own old bedroom when she saw a large scroll with her name in clean, neat Hiragana hanging framed above the bed on a silky white wall. She read her name aloud a few times, noticing how syllables and sounds could now roll off her tongue quite easily again.

There was a soft knock at her bedroom door, and someone called her name.

"Hinata? Hello?" the voice said quietly.

"You may enter," she responded. "But not too loudly."

The sliding door was pushed aside, and Neji stood there, robed in full white, holding two plates of steaming hot food. Hinata looked at him fondly; his hair was still down, fallen quite messily around his long shoulders and his waist, and it swayed ever so slightly by his thighs as he shut the door soundlessly and walked over to her.

"Hey, you hungry?" he asked, lavender eyes soft. His voice, usually hard and somewhat bossy, was laced with warmth and shyness. Still somewhat dazed by the boy's graceful arrival, she shifted her eyes from his face down to the still warm breakfast he was holding. She nodded hungrily, and he quietly sat down on the bed beside her, leaning against the white wall.

Laughing as he tried to get comfortable against the hard surface, she moved over and motioned for him to lay down and eat beside her. With a somewhat-thankful sigh, he did so. He carefully passed her one of the plates, cursing as he burnt his fingers. Warning her not to do the same, he placed it on a small mat infront of her, moving away the plush-like pillows. Hinata glanced curiously down at the contents of her large, hot meal. It consisted of four long strips of bacon, two sunny-side up eggs, a piece of warm, lightly buttered toast, many small homefries, and...

"Ketchup?" she inquired curiosuly with a surprised grin.

Neji looked at her innocently. "What, you don't like ketchup?" he whined, sticking a finger in his own small bowl of red substance, and sticking it very childishly in his mouth. Hinata giggled in amusement, and shook her head.

"It's not that, cousin Neji. I just didn't think you were a very- uh, well... ketchupy-like person... wait, no, that didn't come out right-"

" Um... '_ketchupy-like_'?"

"That's not what I meant, cousin Neji!"

"Do I look like ketchup to you?"

"No! Listen to me!" Hinata exclaimed, nearly in tears. Neji laughed.

"Aww... Hinata, I was just kidding!" he yelped, eyes wide, cute and begging for his younger cousin's forgiveness.

"Eh..." Hinata looked at him. Did Neji used to act like this? She couldn't remember that well... but he was adorable, nonetheless. She blinked twice, and then relaxed her face. She took a deep breath, and let it out, then smiled at him.

"'Kay." she squeaked, and bit into her warm toast. Never had she remembered a meal so delicious...

"Mmmm... tell the cooks that they are better than I remembered." she said quietly after she had swallowed her first bite. She took another bite, and closed her eyes, savouring the sweet buttery taste.

"Why, thank you." Neji laughed. Hinata opened her eyes wide and looked at him.

"You made this?" she asked, dumbfounded. Neji nodded innocently, and stuck a small homefry on his fork, bringing it up in front of his grinning face.

"Does that mean you like it, Hinata?" he asked mischeviously, sticking the end of his fork in his mouth and biting down into the warm potato filling. Hinata swallowed her previous bite, and took a breath.

"It's amazing! I didn't know you could cook, cousin Neji."

"Well, I can. As of a few months ago when Cook got sick for a week. _Never _underestimate how hard that lady works- I never got to train the entire time, I was continuously cooking up one thing or another." he replied lazily, taking a few more onto his forking, chewing them, and swallowing them.

"I'll remember that." Hinata giggled, finding it somewhat hard to imagine Neji scurrying around the large Hyuuga kitchen screaming, frantic because the toasters had broke down and the bacon was burning and Gai-sensei was telling him that if Neji didn't give him more eggs _that second_ he was being sent back to the academy.

The two soon cleaned their plates, in the end Neji having to help Hinata finish her food because she wasn't used to such a great amount. As he finished swallowing the last of her eggs, he sat up, yawned, and attempted at combing his bed-headed hair with his fingers.

Hinata looked at him with interest. "Neji, are you strong?"

Neji stopped his ministrations on his hair, and looked at her with eyes full of concern.

"A bit. We... we've fought before, Hinata, in the Chuunin Exams four years ago. That, and we trained quite a bit together, for a few weeks before the... uh, incident." he muttered quietly, his white doe eyes downcast elsewhere.

"I-it's okay, cousin Neji. I'm sorry. I can't remember right now, that's all." she added quickly, waving her small hands near her chest and twiddling her pointer fingers.

Neji smiled. The finger-twiddle had returned. "Ah, Hinata, I wanted to ask- last night you said that you remembered me a little- what did you mean?"

Hinata's smile quivered slightly, and she blushed. "W-well I kinda remember a scene where we were at this little opening in f-field at n-night and me 'n you were lookin' at the stars and you were telling me a story about them or something like that and then- and then..." she paused, her face redder than the ketchup Neji had demolished.

Neji blinked, his own face going pink. "Ah... I don't remember anything like that!" he gulped, eyes wide. He seriously didn't.

Hinata looked away, a hand on her lower lip. "Well I d-don't know m-maybe it was j-just a d-dream or something weird that j-just came to mind when we were walking h-home..." she squeaked, rolling over and hiding her face in the pillow so that her older cousin couldn't see her amazingly red face.

Neji felt his eyebrow twitch as he looked at the sixteen year old girl beside him, who, by the way she was smothering her face in her pillow, looked as she either was trying to suffocate herself or knock herself unconscious with the feathery bag of fluff.

But to think that Hinata had dreamed like that about him... Neji couldn't even imagine his sweet, innocent, beautiful cousin in that way... right? They had never gone farther than a hug. That's only as far as Neji would allow the relationship to go.

Snickering loudly, he crouched down beside her, nuzzling her head like a cat trying to get attention. She flinched and screamed playfully, pushing him aside and rolling on top of him. Neji did NOT like the position. Luckily for him, she had other thoughts.

"Cousin Neji, may I brush your hair?" she asked politly. He looked at her.

"My... hair?" he asked dumbly. She nodded, blushing.

"Aah, I'm sorry. It was a stupid question. Forget it." the indigo-haired girl above him squeaked. Neji's confused look turned into a grin, and he sat up, with his cousin on his lap.

"No, no, Hinata, it's okay. Sure you can. Go get your brush." he said quickly, giving her a reassuring pat on the back. She smiled, stood up, and clumsily ran over to her old dresser. Taking a few minutes to locate the drawer where she had kept it, she eventually found the silver-handled brush, closed the small drawer, and ran back over to her awaiting cousin.

Neji sat cross-legged on her bed. Hinata sat behind him, and she pulled all of his hair neatly behind him, marvelling at it's length.

"Cousin Neji, your hair is longer than I... I... I remember..." she said, noticing in shock at the newfound memories of her cousin. She paused, dropping the brush onto the bed with a soft plush sound, and stared off into space as she recalled one of the memories. Neji froze, and looked over his shoulder at the still form of his cousin.

_'Where was I? A stadium. A really big stadium, and there were a lot of other people there. I didn't see Sasuke- where was he? This really loud blonde-haired boy was yelling something to me... and... he was encouraging me! For... what? I looked back down to the other side of the field. Hey, it's cousin Neji- wait, no, no... that's just someone who looks like cousin Neji. His eyes... they're scary... they have the Byakugan. It's almost exactly like cousin Neji... but, he's staring at me coldly. _

I hear myself say, "This isn't over yet!" Then I feel the pain. My whole body has nearly given up... my chakra is non longer there. Why can't I fight?

The boy looks at me cruelly a smirk on his face. The smirk looks like Neji's. The eyes do not. "You're not fooling anyone," he says. "I can see with these eyes... it's taking all your strength just to stand! But You need not suffer anymore. Be at peace!" he exclaims with that smirk. He's... scary.

What I heard myself say next scared me more than ever. "But you're wrong, cousin Neji... I can see it now... that even more than me... it's you who are torn and suffering... caught between the destinies of the main branch and the cadet branch of our clan!"

No... that couldn't be right! That's not Neji... but then he rushes towards me, a murderous look in his eyes. As he gets closer... I see the face that I've been with for the last few days. There's no doubt, it's him. My cousin, Neji Hyuuga.

What happened after that? I passed out.

"Hinata! Hey, Hinata!" Neji yelped, shaking his younger cousin's shoulders. Hinata woke up, and realised that she was on the floor, Neji nearly in tears beside her. She looked up at him, and almost automatically her eyes changed, giving off a fearful looked as she screamed, scrambling away from him to the other side of the room.

He looked at her, shocked. The indigo-haired girl took a deep breath, and getting a rein on her nerves and memories, relaxed.

"S-sorry," she mumbled, crawling back over and bowing her head to him. "That memory... why were you trying to kill me?"

Neji looked at her dumbfounded, and asked her to explain what she meant.

She gulped. "It was kind of a really big arena-stadium-place, and you were fighting me, and we were talking, and then you ran at me like some lunatic... and someone up on a balcony kept yelling- no, cheering for me."

Neji looked at her, his eyes showing relent and hurt. "That was the chuunin exams, Hinata. I'm sorry. We weren't... we weren't exactly friendly to each other, then. I'll explain some other time."

Hinata nodded, and hugged him. "You looked so mad at me, and you were using the Byakugan. But, like I said, your hair is so much longer now. Can I keep brushing it?" she asked.

Neji laughed, and nodded. He helped her up back onto the bed, telling her that she had fallen off during her daydream. Sitting back in front of her, she got his hair behind him neatly again and ran the brush through the long chocolate-coloured strands.

She pulled gently, and he moved along with the brush. She made a game of it, moving and pulling slightly to the left, and he would follow, to the right, and he'd shift his weight then lean to the right along with the brush. She giggled, and he sighed in contentment.

"You're like some kind of puppy," she said, scratching his head as a joke. Mumbling something that she couldn't understand under his breath, he arched his back, closed his eyes, and leaned into her hand. She laughed.

"What?" he whined, knitting his eyebrows together. "It feels... good." she laughed once more and pulled backwards a bit roughly, making Neji topple into her lap.

He gave off a surprised yelp but made no attempt at catching himself. She smiled innocently and shifted around to a more comfortable position, leaning against the mound of pillows and looking down at Neji's peaceful face. He looked back up at her with one eye open, as if watching her for any other sudden movements. Finally content and sure that she wasn't about to push him off the bed, he relaxed and closed his other eye. She smiled and leaned towards him, the teen beneath her unaware.

It came as a great shock to him when her soft lips brushed over his.

The seventeen-year old's eyes both shot open wide, and he looked up at the grinning teen above him. Her eyes were closed, and she was back to leaning against the pillows as if nothing had happened. Had he just imagined it?

"Hey." he started curiously, glaring up at her half-heartedly.

"Yes?" Hinata rebounded innocently.

"Did you... just do that?" he asked, a pink blush rising to his cheeks. She titled her head, and looked at him confused.

"Do what, cousin Neji?"

Neji frown irritably. So she was playing dumb. "Did you just do that?" he asked a little more forcefully. She raised her eyebrows, and looked away with a false sigh.

"Well, cousin Neji, I'm not totally sure what you mean. After all, 'Did you just do-" she started, but she was abruptly cut off.

"Did you just kiss me?" he demanded.

She looked at him for a moment, face blank and unreadable. Then, her small mouth split into a wide grin, and she blushed. "Yep." She brought her head down once again and pushed her lips against his.

Neji didn't have much time to react before the second invasion on his mouth. He gasped into the touch, frozen in place for a second before returning the soft gesture, reaching a hand up to brush against one of her pink cheeks. He felt Hinata smile, and gently pulled her head down farther, only semi-conscious to what he was actually doing.

After a minute the two slowly broke apart for air, both pairs of eyes glazed over with want and need. Hinata sighed and rubbed her mouth into Neji's smooth cheek, with his hand still gently grasping a bit of her hair and pulling her downwards. The boy's eyes were lost in space. He hadn't planned for them to even go that far, but...

... it had been nice.

"Hey," he whispered to her. She mumbled a small noise. "Do you want to go out and train after this?" he asked. She nodded into his cheek, giving him butterfly kisses and nuzzling the creamy-coloured skin. He stroked her hair and sat up, still half in her lap.

"D'you mind if I invite some other people? It'll be a big group, but I'll make sure Kiba and Sasuke come, too." he stated coolly. She smiled and nodded, still looking her cousin in the face with eyes half-glazed over.

"Sure." she whispered, and attempted to rub her head against his chest. He stopped her, and grabbed her hand as if to draw the line. They had gone far enough, for now.

"You have to get changed." he pointed out, glancing at her pajamas, and blushing profoundly as he noticed that her top had rised up, almost exposing what he did not want to see. "I'm already changed." he commented.

Hinata noticed that it was true; her chocolate-haired cousin's robe had opened as he moved around, exposing a fishnet top that exposed all his muscles (A/N: drool... lol). He stood up and backed away, pulling off the robe for her to see his attire: his short-sleeved fishnet top, a pair of black kapri pants, a black kunai pouch, and the regular ninja footwear- only a very, very dark brown. On one arm he had an armband that matched the boots, and Hinata noticed that her cousin had changed the way he wrapped his arms and legs. Now both arms were covered in his regular white bandages from the elbows down, and his legs were covered from a foot below the knees down.

"So, is that your regular everyday costume now?" she asked curiously, remembering from the memory an oversized beige t-shirt with a puffy waist and blue shorts. He nodded.

"Oh, I forgot." he started, scratching his head. "We've got to find you a new daily outfit, don't we?"

Hinata looked shocked. "Hey, wait- no, what happened to my good old blue-and-lavender sweater?!" she cried, eyes wide.

Neji sighed. "I'd imagine it was ripped up when you were- you were... in the incident."

"Can't I just get a new one?"

"Oh, come on, Hinata! Give it up. You could look so much better than that!" he said aloud before he could stop himself. She looked at him for a moment, and he was afraid that she would make a snappy remark, but she just sighed back.

"Well, fine. But you better pick out something good."

"Deal," he said, and turned to strut over to her wardrobe. He opened the doors, and peered around inside. He picked out a few pieces of clothing, and threw them on the bed.

"Try those," he added. "I want to see what they look like. I won't look."

Within a few minutes, Hinata had called to him that she was done. Turning around, he gleamed.

"It's pretty on you."

Hinata blushed at the compliment. "Um, thank you, cousin Neji, but I think the top is too small because I can't... breathe too well..." she gasped, and ripped the tangerine-coloured top off before Neji had time to turn back around.

"HINATA!! Tell me before you start stripping in front of me!" he yelled, blushing bright red as he slapped his hands over his eyes. She giggled at his somewhat immature behavior, and wrapped herslef in a blanket.

"Pick out something else. Something blue. I like these pants, though. I'll keep them on." she murmered, glancing fondly down at the black female kapris that were simalar to Neji's. Neji looked for a moment through the wardrobe, and spun around, holding out a lavender-blue spaghetti-strap top with four bold black stripes across the stomach.

Hinata nodded and grabbed it quickly, motioning for Neji to turn around before pulling it gently over her head and fitting it on properly.

"Done." she said finally, flicking her long blue hair over her shoulder. Neji turned around and gaped at the sight in front of him.

"Hinata... that looks great." he smiled, noticing how the colour of the top matched her eyes to an extent. She blushed pink and stared at her feet, twiddling her fingers once again.

"Thanks." she whispered. "But I want you to teach me how to wrap my arms and legs like yours. And I need to find a place for my headband-symbol. I don't want it around my neck anymore, or on my head."

Nejinodded, and went digging through her closets for some white wraps. He found four, and pulled them out. He motioned for Hinata to follow him to the bed, and gave her the wraps, pulling on of his own off his arm to give an example.

For the next five minutes he taught her to first wrap it around her palm, then between her fingers, and eventually up her arm to her elbow. He told he to do the same with her feet, but only down past the heel, and no further. Then the two got to the matter of where to put her leaf symbol. Neji held it in front of him, and sighed.

"I don't know where to put it..." he started. "Shikamaru has it on his arm, but you dont have a sleeve. It wouldn't look good around your waist like Ino and Lee, and you don't want it on your head or neck. Gosh, Hinata, I really don't know..."

Her eyes brightened up. "Howabout here?" she exclaimed, pulling his hands to the top of his shirt. He blushed, dropping the headband in her lap and pulling away, eyes elsewhere.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean-"

"That's okay." he whispered, without eye contact. He stood up and walked towards the door, eyes on the ground. "I'm gonna go call some people to come this afternoon. We'll have a picnic there as well. You fasten that on, and meet me out by the gates when you're done. I have to make quite a few calls." he stated, and walked out of the room, closing the door.

Neji knew that he might have insulted her in a way, and felt bad. Why was he acting all strange towards her? After that kiss... he didn't want to get close to her, afraid that he'd... do something unimaginable, or even hurt her.

With an apologetic sigh, Neji continued to stroll down the corridor, long hair brushed, but untied, swaying behind him.

* * *

Well, that was a long chapter. Hehe. I actually hadn't planned for the smooch to be in there, or for there to be a dressing scene like that (lol the whole time I was thinking of Neji as the male host on 'What Not to Wear'... ahehe...) But hey, it was fun. Yeah, there's gonna be seven chapters, probably an author's note chapter explaining stufferz, then an alternate ending (an incredibly sad, mood-dropping one... angsty, yes, very angsty...). So yes, I've planned out the fic. For some reason I'm stuck on the idea of Neji not wanting to do anything M-Rated to Hinata (lol... love that term), but I might write an M-rate alternate ending...? Maybe on but that won't be for a while. I'll need help on writing something like that. I don't got amazing nerves to be able to write that stuff. I'm like Neji in the story, it's true... now to stop rambling about myself.

This should end out ok. I had to rewrite the ending of this chapter and I'm gonna have to rewrite the ENTIRE fifth chapter that I had finished. Sorry for the wait for the update! I went away for the weekend to a no-laptop zone. Or any electronic, for that matter. Eek. So I'll update within a few days, possibly a week if I'm put off. 'Kay? 

Keruseya Natsuki (Seya-san)


	5. Chapter 5

**So here we are, at the beginning of the renmake of Chapter five. This should be good. Oh, and for anyone who is wondering, yes, Deidara was the rapist, and his buddies were originally Itachi, Kisame, andsomeone else who is so far undescribed and un-named. I'll take any suggestions to who the other should be. Maybe Orochimaru? Nah. I don't like him. Anyways, thats who they were. They will appear err... at the end of next chapter... and stuff will happen... **

Mwahaha. That's was random (sorry). Anyways... more characters are introduced in this chapter... Naruto being one of them... will Hinata remember her past idol? Or will he be yet another stranger? What happens during the training? Am I asking a few too many questions? Are you getting pissed off at me? Should I stop now? Is Soggy-kun gonna give luverly muffins to anyone who reviews? I think so. Ask him. He like to talk to people through their dreams. Really. He emailed me. I can prove it. His email was something like, 'uchihasasukegenin.konoha.nin' and it was creepy. I'll talk more about that some other time, note me if you wanna find out about it more.

But anywhooos, (cool word lol) this is gonna be a fairly short chapter. I suck at battle scenes. I think. I've never exactly written one, but I imagine it would be die-in-your-chair boring and quite repetitive. Hey, would you look at that... it's two o'clock in the morning and I got school tomorrow. So here it goes.

It was about eleven in that morning when Neji reappeared at her door. Hinata had bolted, sewed and securly fitted her symbol on the front of her shirt, and gleamed at her older cousin as he nodded in approval and motioned for her to follow him. He had a basket in his hand which he gave to her, but told her not to open. She agreed to keep it shut, and the pair left the house.

Neji was quiet most of the way to the grounds. He was deep in thought over the relationship between him and his young cousin, deciding where it would go. The teen mentally sighed. _'This is all too hard,' _he thought to himself. _'She deserves someone better. Maybe... maybe seeing him again...'_ Neji cast his eyes downwards at the thought of the loud blonde boy who Hinata had adored and idolized for so long. _'Maybe she'll fall for him. I hope so.'_

At least, that's what his mind said. His heart felt differently, as if it would shatter if Hinata even considered anyone else. Why did he feel like that?

"Neji," she started, looking at him sadly. "What's the matter? You're so down."

He looked at her, eyes threatening to break out and tear, but he wiped away his former thought and smiled through his sadness. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just thinking." he told her.

"Oh." Hinata replied, unconvinced. "Who's gonna be there, cousin Neji?"

He thought back to the list of people he had called. "Kiba and Sasuke, Naruto Uzumaki, you, me, and my old teammate Tenten. They're all really nice, one is somewhat loud, but you'll get along." he stated. "I'm almost sure of it. You knew them."

Hinata smiled, and nodded, turning back to the path, basket in hand. Within the next ten minutes of silence, they had arrived at the training grounds. It was a large opening in a small forest, and there were many small dummies set up awaiting them.By the looks of it, Sasuke and Kiba had already arrived. They each had a small basket, and waved to the Hyuugas from their spots on the ground.

"Hey Hinata! Ya look great!" yelled Kiba with a comical punch into the air. Hinata merely smiled. She looked at Sasuke, and he nodded in agreement.

"Neji picked it out for me." she commented, moving over to her cousin and leaning against him fondly. He sighed, and looked away.

A brunette with a pink t-shirt strolled into the clearing. She laughed, waved, and ran over to the group of four.

"Hey, Neji! Hinata! You two! Long time no see!" She yelled as she approached. Neji looked in her direction, grinned, and jogged over to her, envelopping his teammate in a hug.

Hinata looked on with confused eyes. Was something going on between these two? She had thought that Tenten was only her cousin's teammate, but...

The pink-clad seventeen year old girl walked over to Hinata, Neji trailing behind her. She approached Hinata, arms outstretched, and Hinata panicked. Neji wasn't there to hide behind! The human wall had disappeared! Closing her eyes, and prepared for the worst, Hinata soon felt the older girl's arms wrap around her, and relaxed. A hug. Good, that was all.

Tenten let go, and went to pick up the picnic blanket that she had dropped. She laid the giant blue blanket out on the ground beside a treestump where Sasuke sat, and removed her shoes before crawling onto the mat. Neji and Kiba followed suit, and Hinata copied them afterwards.

"Who are we missing?" Kiba asked curiously.

Neji looked at him, ready for a reaction. "Naruto."

Sasuke glared at him. "You actually invited that dobe?" he asked bitterly. Neji nodded. Kiba groaned. Tenten unpacked the baskets circled around her, laying out the food. As she started to unpack Hinata's basket, a kunai shot down beside the mat, making everyone jump.

A figure clad in black and orange landed beside his weapon, and stood up with a huge rin on his face. "Hey guys!" he shouted, though the group was only a foot away. "Nice to see 'ya, Hinata! How you doin', anyway?" he said, taking his footwear off and squatting beside the stunned girl on the blue mat.

"Ah- good..." she squeaked, exchanging a scared look with Neji. He shook his head as to say, 'This is the loud one. He's alright.'. She nodded in understanding.

"Who... who are you?" She asked timidly. Naruto paused, and frowned slightly.

"Hey Hinata, you don't remember me? It hasn't been that long! Hey... you actually can talk to me now! That's amazin'!" he laughed, totally off-topic once again.

"Ah... but, who-"

"Hinata," chuckled Neji from across the mat. "This is Naruto."

She looked back to him. Then she recognized him. "You're the one who cheered for me... but, why...?" she said softly as he sat beside her and smiled at her.

"Why don't you remember, Hinata? Did you like, forget everything that's ever happened to you, or what?"

"...Yes."

"WHAT?" Tenten and Naruto shouted together. Neji closed his eyes, and frowned.

"I thought I had told you, Tenten. Naruto, Tenten, listen. I'm sure you heard that last August there was a big accident, and Team Eight- also known as Team Kurenai- was forever broken up. Hinata and Kiba had been left, Kiba unharmed, Hinata raped then left to die in a coma. It wasn't until last week that Hinata actually woke up up... and she didn't even rememeber me, or anyone else other than Kiba."

There was silence among them, other than a sniffle from Hinata and a depressed sigh from either Kiba or Sasuke.

"Oh... I'm sorry, Hinata." Naruto commented, obviously much less hyper after the explaination of the past.

The indigo-haired female tipped her head in response, and looked down at the food that they had individually brought, eyes threatening to let loose of thier tears.

"Me too." Tenten whispered. The brown-haired weapons mistress sobbed into a gloved hand, making an attempt to brush away her tears. It was too much for Hinata. She stood up and dashed away into the woods. Neji stood up, cursing, and followed her. The four others continued to sit on the mat.

"I knew," Sasuke commented quietly. Naruto, Kiba and Tenten looked at him. "Neji invited me with them the day after Hinata was released from the hospital. We visited the fields, and then the cemetery to see the graves... I'm sorry, Kiba. You lost them too."

Kiba nodded, eyes closed. "I lost Akamaru. He was my best friend. The Akatsuki were the ones that came after us... a blonde one was after Hinata, I got trapped by a demonic-dude while I was trying to save her, and... Shino was killed another. He looked like you, Sasuke." Kiba explained.

Sasuke eyes shot wide. "What, was it Itachi? My brother, you mean? He's a missing-nin!" the sixteen year old boy cried. His brother, the butcher of the Uchiha Clan, had killed yet another person Sasuke knew, Shino Aburame.

---Meanwhile...---

Hinata ran, stumbling over logs until she tripped and nearly fell in mud. She felt a pair of strong arms catch her, and was quickly pulled into the comfort and safety of a familiar tall, warm body. Her cousin wrapped his arms around her body protectively, and rested his chin on her head.

"Don't run, please." he begged her, holding her as she tried to struggle away. She cried and writhed, finally giving up and laying against his chest. "I had to tell them." he continued, "Naruto would keep pestering you if I didn't. I hadn't told them, I hadn't meant for you to be upset. Just think, Kiba went through it too."

Hinata didn't answer, merely clutching his fishnet shirt between her fingers and tugging on it sub-consciously, lost in thought.

"Forgive me?" Neji pleaded.

Hinata paused, and nodded. "I forgive you. I'm hungry. Please, just don't bring it up again." she noted. Neji sighed, and agreed. The two broke apart, and wandered slowly back to the picnic grounds.

By the time they returned, the other four had begun to eat quietly. Naruto was sipping some chicken ramen that Kiba had bought, Kiba was eating a muffin (A/N: lol!), and Tenten and Sasuke were eating sandwiches. Kiba looked warily up at the Hyuuga pair as they approached. Neji smiled.

"We're okay." Neji whispered. He motioned for Hinata to sit down, and sat down beside her. Hinata picked up a jam sandwich from Sasuke's pile of food and bit into it. Neji looked around for something he wanted to eat, spotted the blueberry muffins, and grabbed one.

The six chuunin sat, almost afraid to break the silence. Then Sasuke piped up, muttering something very random.

"I like tomatoes."

Naruto burst out laughing, and Sasuke merely looked at him. The blonde boy rolled onto his back, hitting the ground with his fist. Kiba raised an eyebrow at him.

"Damn, Naruto, it wasn't _that _funny!" he yelped, finishing off his muffin. He heard a giggle, and looked over to his other side to see Hinata, red-faced and laughing along with Naruto. Sasuke noticed this too, and smiled in contentment. He had made the sad girl laugh.

"Hinata, you too! How is it so funny? Tomatoes are good!" he yelped again. Hinata doubled-over into Neji, who had begun to snicker himself. Hinata grabbed hold of Neji's fishnet shirt and tried to stay upright, but she was failing miserably. With a sudden tug, she pulled Neji right over, and he fell into Tenten's plate of pie.

"Ah!" he muttered loudly, surprised at the cold feeling on his cheek. He sat up quickly, apologizing continuously to his teammate, and wiped the white cream of his chin. By this time, Hinata was immitating Naruto. She lay on her side on the ground, unable to stop laughing at her cousin. He got annoyed and chucked his half-eaten muffin at her, but she ducked simultaneously and it hit Sasuke square in the shoulder.

The blue haired Uchiha's eyebrow twitched comically. "You just... threw a muffin at me." he said somewhat coolly. Kiba, who was sitting beside the pissed off genius, slowly moved away. Sasuke snapped.

"YOU JUST THREW A FRIKKEN' MUFFIN AT ME YOU'RE GONNA PAY YOU FREAK ARGHHH-!!!" he roared, standing up, fuming, and grabbing the huge bowl of bright orange jello that was sitting oh-so-innocently beside him.

Neji gulped, jumped up and ran. Sasuke sighe in frustration, and just to get revenge on _something_, dumped the sticky goo on Naruto's blonde head.

"There. It matches you." The irritated Uchiha growled. Naruto sat, shocked, and within a minute had splashed Hinata cruelly with his lemonade. The indigo-haired girl whined in displeasure. Then, a slightly murderous look came into her soft, lavender eyes and she hit the boy over the head with a resounding 'thok', stomping off to sit beside the uncontaminated Kiba on a log. She shook herself off like a dog, getting lemonade all over the boy beside her.

"Aww, Hinata! Now I gotta take a bath, too!" he complained, shielding himself from the spray of sickly sweet juice. Then he paused, and an idea came to mind. "Hey, before we train, howabout we all go for a swim?"

"Sounds... fun." Neji said, stepping back into the clearing cautiously, and staying clear of Sasuke. "I brought me and Hinata's bathing suits, because I had planned for us to go for a swim later, anyways."

"Yeah, I brought mine, too." Tenten agreed. "Though I'm not in any way unclean."

She spoke too soon. As soon as the words left her cherry-coloured lips, Neji rubbed his cream-pie head all over back. She protested and pushed him away, but he just grinned

"Now you can." he stated. She nodded, glaring at him. Then she and Hinata walked off into the bushes to get changed. Neji looked at Naruto, Kiba and Sasuke.

"Did any of you bring something to swim in?" he asked. Naruto shook his head, but stripped down to his boxers. Kiba followed suit.

"I have mine in my basket. I'll go get changed." Sasuke stated coolly, strutting off back to the picnic site. Neji nodded, and went to get his bathing suit also.

After about ten minutes, the two girls emerged from the bushes, clothes in hand. Tenten wore a pale pink one piece suit, and Hinata wore a white neck-tankini (a bikini, but the top is about waist-length) with two light purple stripes down her left side. They found the guys already sitting on the edge of the riverbank, Naruto already soaked.

"Hey." Neji commented as the girls approached, dropping their clothes in neat piles on the bank. "You look pretty good, both of you."

Tenten squeaked a thanks, and Hinata just nodded and wandered over to her cousin, basking in his protection. She heard Neji sigh, and he gently grabbed her arm. She looked up at him, and noticed that he was looking away.

"Neji?" she asked shyly, wondering why he had grabbed her arm. He looked down at her.

"What? Oh. Come on, let's have a swim." he whispered, slowly sliding himself down the riverbank and into the shimmering, clear water. Hinata shifted around a bit, and with Neji still holding onto her arm, leaped down. Neji gasped and caught her before she hit the water. Hinata giggled at her cousin's wary behaviour.

"Cousin Neji, you didn't have to catch me. Why are you so nervous?" she asked as Tenten and Kiba hopped in to join them.

Neji looked around to make sure nobody was listening. "My Byakugan... it won't work." he whispered. Hinata's eyes shot wide and she looked at the seventeen-year-old with disbelief.

"How is it not working? It's our kekkai genkai; it can't just _stop_ working..." she muttered, moving closer to him and pressing her fragile body against his much sturdier one. Neji grimaced, and looked down at her.

"I have a bad feeling. Hinata, please, give me some space." he whispered, and Hinata gasped. Hurt, she backed off and went to sit in the river beside where Sasuke was still sitting up on a rock. He smiled down at her.

"Hey, what's up, Hinata?" he asked, trying to be friendly. The girl didn't answer, but moved closer to him so that she may have a new source of comfort. She moved so that her body was between his legs, dangling down from the rock. Sasuke looked at her oddly. What was this all about? He glanced over at the senior Hyuuga, to find the boy resting quietly in the water by himself a few metres upstream. He appeared to be concentrating.

Sasuke sighed, and slipped into the water behind Hinata, frightening the girl. She squeaked as he slid in, not expecting the splash from behind her. She turned around quickly, only to find the bloue-haired boy looking at her as if she was going to explode.

"Ah- sorry, Sasuke." she whispered, blushing. He nodded in understanding, the fear of someone suddenly appearing behind her after what had happened the previous August. He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder as she settled back and relaxed on his lap.

"What's the matter? Did something go wrong between you and Neji?" he pried, desparately wanting an answer to his relationship question. Hinata nodded sullenly, and rolled over to lean her indigo head against his shoulder, seeking comfort.

"He told me to go away." she sniffed. Sasuke muttered a soft 'oh', before becoming silent once more and just relaxing with the girl in the warm spring heat. After a while, he tapped her on the shoulder gently, and she turned her head to look at him.

"You want to trian now, Hinata?" he asked her quietly. She paused, as oif thinking it over, and then nodded, pulling out of the shallow water with Sasuke right behind her. Neji and Tenten noticed, and climbed out soon after, offering to help with the practise.

Once the four (Kiba and Naruto continued to fool around in the water) were dried off and changed, they strolled over to the target posts, where Tenten handed Hinata a few shuriken.

"Try these. I'll assess you on if you remember how to throw the tools." she offered. Hinata nodded, and the pink-clad brunette stepped out of the way. Hinata drew back her right arm, looked directly at the red-and-white target, aimed, and whipped her arm forwards. It felt strange to her.

The throwing star hit the third-farthest circle from the center.

"Not too shabby," Tenten whistled. "I forgot that you don't use tools much in the Hyuuga Clan. You're better then Neji." the girl winked, recieving a glare from said shinobi standing beside her.

Hinata smiled at the compliment, and aimed the second star. This one she hit in the second circle nearest to the center, and the third shuriken hit the same ring. Tenten clapped her approval, and sasuke stepped in.

"Let me try you for hand-to-hand NON-juken hits. I mean without your gentle fist, like normal kicks and so." he suggested. Hinata swallowed.

"I'm not great at that kind of stuff... but... okay..." she mumbled, twiddling her index fingers in front of her. Sasuke grabbed her hands.

"You start."

Hinata shivered, but got into her ready stance. Sasuke followed suit, taking the Uchiha battle style stance. Within moments, Hinata had dashed at the more experienced boy, sliding underneath him unexpectedly to reappear behind him, thrusting a fist into his back.

She gasped when it actually made contact, and apologized rapidly until there was a telltale poof and a log took the place of Sasuke's look-a-like substitution jutsu, falling rather noisily to the ground. Hinata looked at the spot where the 'body' had been, and hadn't noticed a bright orange figure sneaking up behind her.

Naruto jumped out of the bushes, to everyone's surprise, and frightened Hinata. He toppled Hinata over, and jumped into the air threateningly. Sasuke appeared in a flash on the other side of the clearing, yelling 'Naruto, don't!' before the blonde fox-like boy landed ontop of the quivering blue-haired girl on the ground. He straddled her back for a mere second, before Hinata was overpowered by almost an exact memory of this position.

_Deja vu. _

Hinata screamed.

And that's it, folks, for chapter five. It was up sooner than I expected. I didn't really like my food fight scene bt/wn the characters, but there always has to be a really, really bad part before the really, really good part comes.

Hah. I won't mention any names, but one of my reviewers said, "Neji's really gotta be laid." about chapter four. It made me laugh for about ten minutes straight in the middle of class (I posted the chapter this morning, and got the review within the same hour or so) and everyone said I was nuts. Let me retell you that everyone in that class is also a year older than me, so I really looked like an idiot. So thank you for sending me that brilliant, hilarious little note. Yes, Neji is kinda set on not loving Hinata back in Chapter four, but it changed a bit this chapter, and will change for a BIG difference next chapter.

Oh... and on that same message, after the laugh-so-hard-i-nearly-choked-and-died ten minutes, I actually thought about changing the rating to M... for chapter seven, because your note gave me an idea. Maybe. But it might be goin' WAY to far into Hyuugacest for me... maybe. I love that word. I've also noticed I write 'Hinata smiled' or 'Hinata merely smiled' WAY too much in this story. I'm running out of useful words, wah.

Oh! Oh! I got another favourite Naruto character! Who is gonna star again in chapter seven of this story... yes, the one evil-ish character who booted Shika-kun off the popularity list is... Dei-kun! Deidara! DEIDARA IS A GUY DAMNIT! I can't stand when translators call him a girl... wahh... but anyways, I'm gonna make an account on photobucket eventually called 'Keruseya Natsuki', and I'll have a folder called... guess... 'Remember'. Yes, peeps, I'll be posting the pics I drew about this story! I already have the drawings for Neji and Hinata's costume design, and scene 7 planned out... if anyone else wants to send me fanart about the fic, I'll be happy to post that too. My email-address is... but don't abuse it! 'Kay?

Thank you everyone who is reading, and I will post all the reviewers up to now with extreme amounts of Soggy-kun's muffins and Our new Specialty Dei-kun's poisonous sugary clay-bird-poop cookies that NOBODY KNOWS ARE POISONOUS BECAUSE DEI-KUN IS EVIL BWAHAHAHA!

I'm done.

Keruseya Natsuki (Seya-san)

PS- I'll update ASAP!!!


	6. Chapter 6

**I love author's comments.**

**They make me happy.**

**So do Soggy-kun's muffins.**

**But I think Dei-kun's POISONOUS clay-bird-poop cookies are trying to kill me. Somehow.**

**Boo.**

**Hah!**

**That was fun.**

**I wonder what Deidara's msn name would be?**

'**Art-is-a-bang-don't-knock-it-...yeah'**

**Dei-kun says '...yeah' a lot. His voice is too deep. He needs a little voice. No, wait, Dei-kun should have Orochimaru's voice. That would sound cool. Even like, Hughes from Fullmetal Alchemist would be too deep. And now they've put in some dude who sounds like he's drowning when they play Dei's voice at the absolute end of episode 135. That's the only time you hear/see him for now. Sigh. I want my Dei-kun. Anyways, here are the **

**wonderful people who have replied for the last -err... three?- chapters:**

**- -x-Taylor-x- (thanx 4 da hilarious comment)**

**- rcr**

**- NoireDragon12**

**- raggedywings**

**- onototelligoyou**

**Kinda wish I was Hinata- wait, no, no, I don't. That'd be horribly sad. Scary. Oh... I wonder how she is now, thinking that Naruto was the rapist? Shall we look into it?**

**-- Seya**

**Remember- Chapter Six**

_Hinata screamed._

"NARUTO YOU BASTARD, GET OFF OF HER!" Sasuke roared, as he and Neji hurtled themselves at the clueless blonde boy on top of a struggling, screaming, and bawling Hinata. Sasuke threw himself at his teammate, slamming into his side and knocking them both flying towards a nearby tree where they landed with a loud bang.

Neji dashed to his cousin's side, as she screamed and shook in absolute terror. That had been too... real. Neji grabbed her and pulled her to him, forgetting the issue over his personal space just to give the terrified girl comfort. He snuck his arms around her side and held her still against his body, ignoring her pleas and sobs to make him release her. He attempted to shush her, but to no avail; she thrashed in his grip, hitting him multiple times wherever her limbs could reach. It did hurt Neji, but he was determined to comfort the girl and pay no attention to his own worries or pains.

Hinata cried as she stared up into his face momentarily, before whipping her only free arm around once again to catch Neji sqaurely in the temple. He flinched, and heard Tenten cry out to him. He ignored his teammate's call. She wasn't important at the minute. Hinata was.

The indigo-haired kunoichi in Neji's arms finally gave up the struggle, falling limp against the older teen's frame as he too slid to the ground, without losing his grip on his cousin. Hinata continued to shake, and Neji glanced over to see Naruto being pummelled by both Kiba and Sasuke. He knew that neither of his comrades would really injure the boy, but they were intent on teaching the loudmouth a lesson or two.

"Hush," Neji whispered to Hinata, but these words made her yell again. Neji looked at her, confused.

"D-don't tell me that, cousin Neji!" she sobbed, glaring at him. "You keep pushing me away- and then you come up and hug me or something whenever _you _feel comfortable! I don't like it! Why do you keep away fom me, like you did in the river, and back at the house?" she whined, begging for an answer to fall from the lips of the chocolate-haired boy.

What she got from those lips was not an explaination. Her cousin roughly grabbed the crest of Hinata's head and directed her mouth to his, crushing their lips together. Hinata did not protest, reacting almost instantly and digging her hands into the hem of Neji's shirt.

She cried into the bittersweet kiss, feeling tears numbly roll over her reddened cheeks and down past her chin. It wasn't until Neji opened his own eyes a bit that he saw this, and tears came to his eyes as well. Blinking against the wetness in his eyes, tears leaked out and made their way down his face as well.

He broke apart from her, and pulled her into an embrace.

"Hinata... It's not like I do it because I don't appreciate you. I do. I love you. I just don't want to hurt you, is all..." he softly whispered, digging his face into her blue hair. He felt her breath hitch at his words, and then she continued to sob, in happiness or sadness, he could not tell.

"N-Neji... what hurts is when you d-don't want me around..." she replied, holding him and falling into his lap, arms still wrapped around his warm body. Neji cradled her, and Hinata buried her nose into his shirt, inhaling his scent. "D-don't let me g-go," she pleaded. "Stay with m-me."

Neji nodded, and nuzzled the top of her head with his mouth. His eyes dropped, expressionless, as he realised that he had gone over his boundaries once again. Then pushing the thought away, he looked back over to where Naruto, Sasuke and Kiba were. It appeared as if Tenten had joined them, but instead of fighting, she was trying to keep the two enraged boys off of Naruto.

"Hey! Kiba! Sasuke! She's alright, just drop it!" Neji heard Tenten yell. Kiba would not get the point as fast as Sasuke did, and got thumped rather noisily on the head by a well-aimed fist of Tenten's. The weapons mistress sighed.

"Hinata's fine. Naruto, please just don't do that again." Neji commented, and the four at the tree ran over. Naruto lead the pack, and crouched in front of Hinata. The kunoichi shied away, and Naruto frowned.

"Ah, I'm sorry Hinata! Please don't get too upset at me! I promise that I'll be more careful- and I keep my promises!" he yelped, waving his hands frantically in front of the quivering girl's face. She looked at him warily, then nodded, but did not move away from Neji. The boy held her tight in response.

Naruto smiled. "Thanks, Hinata! You're the best! I can always count on you to forgive me!" he announced, jumping up and running comically around the field. Hinata smiled in her older cousin's shirt as she heard Neji say, 'what a fool'. She nodded her head, and sighed in contentment.

Tenten smiled. "So I'm guessing we're done training for today?" she asked Neji, already guessing the answer. It was getting dark out nontheless, as the sun was slowly falling behind the horizon line. The group of six looked up at the reddening sky.

"It's beautiful..." Hinata noted in awe. The heat-giving orb called the sun looked so perfect against the orange and pink-looking clouds, and was a sight to see framed into the flame-red sky. Even the trees were peaceful now; there was no wind blowing through them to make the leaves rustle. The river was quiet seeming, too.

Then Neji realised something with a pang of fear: it was, in fact, almost too quiet.

He glanced around the clearing frantically. It was getting dark. He called on his Byakugan, but his kekkai genkai was indeed not working. He cursed under his breath, and Hinata turned in her 'seat' to look at him.

"Is something wrond, cousin Neji?" she asked with a slight quiver in her voice. She could feel her cousin tensing up, and growing wary. The rest of the group listened intently. Neji looked at the stream, and wondered why it seemed so abnormally silent. He could not find out a reason why.

"Doesn't this seem a bit too... weird, to you? It's... so quiet here." he said, almost expecting his soft whisper to echo off the trees. The rest of the group looked around too, and Sasuke hummed.

"It does." Tenten agreed, and stood up. She walked over to the foresty area, and peered around. "I can't even see or hear _any_ wildlife, or even bugs! This is weird..."

Kiba stood up and joined Tenten. "We should go." he called to the group. "I have excellent hearing and sense of smell, but nothing is coming to my nose or ears at all. It's like our senses are being cut off. I can't... I can't even smell the _trees_." he pointed out, leaning into the tree and taking a sniff. He shook his head. Hinata gulped.

"K-Kiba's right. We should leave." she stuttered, and Neji helped her to stand up. Sasuke and Naruto followed suit, and the group of six stood together.

"Okay. Come on." Sasuke siad, and turned to lead the way. The group followed him, and they weren't walking for even ten minutes before Sasuke stopped in his tracks, muttered a noise of confusion, and looked around at their surroundings. Neji and Tenten walked up to him, Hinata following soon after as to not get too far away from her protective cousin.

"We've already gone through here." Sasuke pointed out, and pulled out a kunai. he threw it at a log laying on the ground in front of him, then walked up to it, stepping over the large piece of rotten wood. "Let's leave this here as a mark, and we'll keep walking. If we come across it again, then we'll know that were not insane, we'll just have been walking in circles."

Tenten nodded. "Yeah, but we'll have to hurry. It's getting dark, and we can't exactly move around a lot in this forest. We'll get lost."

"Then let's keep walking." Sasuke suggested, and moved on ahead. Neji and Hinata stumbled afterwards, and the group moved along in a steady line.

Five minutes later, it was almost pitch dark. Naruto, who had moved up to be in front of Sasuke, was fooling around when he tripped over the log. Sasuke bent down, ignoring his teammate's yelp of surprise, and pulled his kunai out of the log, twirling it on his finger coolly. Tenten and Kiba gaped at it.

"We're lost." Kiba finally noticed. Sasuke nodded.

Tenten sighed. "Let's stay here until daylight. We'll find something to talk about, we just won't fall asleep." She sat down on the log, arms crossed. Neji sat down beside her, and Hinata squeezed herself between Nej and Sasuke, who had taken his place on the other side of the older Hyuuga. Naruto, who had finally pulled himself up off the ground, plopped himself right back down where he had fell and leaned back against the log. Kiba sat down in front of Hinata.

"Say... Hinata, I was afraid to ask, but do you remember anything about when me and you were little?" Neji asked, risking a chance that she might remember and mistrust him. Hinata shook her head 'no'. Neji sighed in relief. "Well, I'll explain it to you. I think the only person who hasn't heard here is Sasuke."

Neji cleared his throat, and prepared for the long explaination. "Let's see... when we we really small, me and you were best friends. Our fathers were twins, but yours was born first; he became the leader of the Clan while my father was sent to the Cadet branch. I didn't meet you until your third birthday party, when I was four. That day, December 27th, Konohagakure had signed a peace treaty with Kumogakure, the Village Hidden in the Clouds. We were the only Clan that hadn't shown up, because it was that day on which you became heiress to our Clan, and I had received the mark of the Caged Bird on my forehead." he pointed out, removing his headband so that she, Kiba and Sasuke could see it for the first time.

"It wasn't long after that when I promised my father that I'd always protect you. I was still only four, so I had agreed without a second thought. A few months later someone had attempted to kidnap you, and your father killed the man in his tracks. When the body's mask was removed, it turned out to be someone from Kumo, the country in which we had just passed an alliance. They were mad and said nothing about the attempted kidnap, merely demanding that they could have your father's dead body in return."

Hinata gasped. "Did he...?"

Neji shook his head sadly, a fire coming into his eyes. "No. My father sacrificed his life to keep alive his identical twin, my uncle, or your father. They got _my_ father's dead body... not yours. Hyuuga Clan was kept alive. I... I regret it, but after that experience, I hated you. Detested you. I had blamed you for the death of my father. And I could finally express my hate four years ago at our first Chuunin Exam. That day, I had nearly killed you. That's the day... the moment you remember. When you lost, Naruto here had jumped down from the balcony, and promised that he would beat me if he ever had a chance. Luckily for him, in the second round of the exams, he was pitted against me, and I was almost too sure that I would beat him."

Naruto snickered, and Neji sighed. "He proved me wrong. Naruto beat me after I had called both you and him dropouts that wouldn't be able to change. After he beat me, and your father told me the truth about my father's sacrifice... that he volunteered to do it, I changed my attitude towards you, if only just a bit. I grew to care for you. And then..."

Hinata shuddered. "Came the accident." she finished. Neji nodded.

"And now, I just want to protect you, like I had originally promised. I'll never let you go. I love you." he added, turning to her and hugging her once again. Hinata returned the hug.

"Thank you, Neji. I love you too. What you said helps explain what I kept remembering... so thank you." she cried.

There was a rustle in the bushes behind them, and three darkly-clad figures stepped out. "Aww... how touching." the one on the right said. Hinata froze. That voice...

The group all jumped up, and turned around to face the three Akatsuki members.

"Itachi!" Sasuke snarled, attempting to call on his Sharingan. He failed miserably and growled.

"Foolish little brother." Itachi started. "Kisame has changed the air for me. Not even I am able to use my Sharingan. Byakugan won't work either." he added, with a glance towards Neji and the quivering bundle in his arms. The 22-year old in the center of the group stepped forward casually, and looked a Hinata.

"Would you look at that? It's my doll. Long time no see, right? Hmm..." The blonde boy said. Hinata cried aloud and rolled over behind the log, holding Neji close. The older cousin glanced down at her, and then glared up at the boy five years his senior.

"How do you know Hinata!?" he demanded. The blonde boy chuckled cruelly, and took a step closer. Neji flinched.

"Haven't you figured it out yet?" the boy asked coolly. His comrades, Itachi and Kisame, stepped closer.

Itachi grinned, looking away from his younger brother and pointing at the blonde. "Deidara's the one that raped her."

* * *

**Oooh... tension. I'm not yet done chapter seven. I'll work on it tonight (it's about 5:45 right now) and hopefully I'll have the final chapter posted within the next two days. Thank you SOOOOOOO much for everyone who has and will be reviewing, because this story is my first Naruto chapter-fanfiction! I'm proud of it! Hyuugacest+Dei-kun lives on!!!! Soggy-kun's muffins and Dei-kun's POISONOUS clay-bird-poop cookies rock my world!**

**I luv you guys! Nini-chan, Shi-san, Kyo-san, Yume-chan, and EVERYONE who has inspired me!!!! Seya-san says 'domo arigatou gozaimasu!'**

**Oyasumi nasai, I'll see you soon!**

**Keruseya Natsuki**


	7. Chapter 7

**This is a very sad day... I'm writing the final chapter of my luverly Hina/Neji, Neji/Dei (onesided), and Hina/Dei (also onesided). Oh, you ask how this is going to be Neji/Deidara? Well, I'm not putting much yaoi into it (long live the goddamn wondefulness of yaoi, anyways) but this chapter is planned to be... interesting. After this story Is finished I'm writing one solely on Deidara... maybe Deidara/Hinata (bothsided! Yay!) If i'm in the mood for another romancey-fic. I dunno. I would write Deidara/Sasori yaoi, but, first of all I don't know anything about Sasori, and second, I'm WAY too embarassed to write yaoi so I'd probably choke and die long before I finished the first chapter. Ah well... yeah.**

**...yeah.**

**...yeah.**

**...let's try and write the story, now, yeah.**

**Dei-kun rox... Soggy-kun won't like the final chapter... or will he? Dun dun dunnnnnnn**

_Itachi grinned, looking away from his younger brother and pointing at the blonde. "Deidara's the one that raped her."_

Neji flinched, and quivered. He glared at the blonde boy harder as Hinata burst into tears, but felt that his own mask was 'slipping'. He couldn't deny nor hide it any longer. Neji was terrified of this... monster... that had taken the innocence of his baby cousin.

"Why..." he muttered, his voice cracked and giving off but more signs of his already obvious fear. "Why would you do that to her...? She's only a child!" Neji roared.

The blonde Akatsuki, 'Deidara' as his comrade had referred to him as, grinned and laughed. "A child? She's a mere year younger than you, yeah. Plus, she was asking for it... jumping around in that huge purple sweater... she was covering up how really dirty she could be, yeah! Don't tell me she was innocent. Well, maybe until I came along, yeah, but she would have gotten taken sooner or later anyways!"

Hinata shook her head hard in objection and pulled closer to Neji.

"I-I-I w-wouldn't th-th-think that w-way! I w-w-wore it t-to cover up even m-m-more! I d-didn't like g-going around w-w-wearing t-shirts... d-don't b-b-believe him, c-cousin Neji!" she stuttered, eyes welling up with tears as she crouched close, trying to hide herself among the plants, but to no avail.

Sasuke glanced over at Kiba from the corner of his eye, and noticed in shock that the dog-boy was also quivering, looking wide-eyed at the shark-skinned blue man, Kisame, on one side of Deidara. Then he remembered, Kisame had been the one to beat up Kiba in the first place. And that meant...

"Itachi! Why did you kill Shino? He was just returning home, like the rest of them! You had no reason to kill him!" Sasuke yelled, and his older brother hid the bottom half of his face within the Akatsuki cloak rim. His expression was unreadable, and he did not answer.

Naruto had heard enough. It was too unlike the blonde-haired kyuubi boy to sit still and listen to threats.

"Why... YOU!" he growled, and leapt at Itachi with kunai in hand.

"Naruto-!" Sasuke yelped, realising that his best friend was in serious trouble. He leapt up and jumped after the boy, who was being surrounded by red-orange coloured chakra. The fox demon was awakening. The battle had begun.

Two shurkien swept through the air beside the Akatsuki. Kisame swund his sword up with cat-like reflexes and shielded himself. He then lowered his guard only a bit, and snickered.

"You can't beat me with little tricks like that, dog-boy. I'm one of the seven-"

"It wasn't him." said a girl's voice, and a pink-clad figure leapt out from behind Kisame, thrusting her left heel into his neck and connecting her right fist with his face. The shark-man from the Village Hidden in the Mist swore, holding an already black, blue and purple swelling eye. Tenten landed on the ground beside Kiba.

"C'mon Inuzuka, it's me and you against him. Stand up." she commanded, and still shivering, the boy rose to his knees, then his feet.

"Brats." Kisame cursed, and let go of his battered eye. It was swollen shut. "I'll get you, you watch out." he muttered, and ran towards them with his Samehada swung over his shoulder. Tenten quickly pushed Kiba aside, yelled 'Run!', and dashed away herself.

Deidara watched all this with half-hearted interest, then turned back to his own prey. "Now, hey, where do I start, yeah?" he grinned. Neji felt beads of sweat prick at his face, and cursed the fact that he wasn't able to use the Byakugan at his time of need. He watched closely as the missing-nin from Iwagakure (The Village Hidden Among the Rocks) stuck a long arm in his cloak, and pulled out a chunk of what appeared to be rock... no, clay.

Both Neji and Hinata gasped as Deidara's hand literally _ate_ the clay, and noticed that he had mouths in the palms of his hands. Deidara clenched his fist a few times, then the mouth spat back out what appeared to be a small clay stature of a bird.

"N-nice art, anyways, but it won't help you beat us... me." Neji stuttered, counting the horrified Hinata out of the competition. He stood up, much to Hinata's dislike, but he muttered to her to stay put.

"No c-cousin Neji something b-bad is going to happen!" she squeaked, and the older boy looked at her.

"Lady Hinata," he started, adressing her formally. "I believe that the 'bad' has already started." and he took a step towards Deidara cautiously. No matter how wary he was, Neji wasn't quick enough, and it was considered his first mistake.

With amazing speed, the clay bird darted around the older Hyuuga and landed quietly on the back of his younger cousin. Hinata froze. Deidara nodded.

"Good doll, yeah. If you even try to hurt me, fool, or return to dollie, I'll blow her up." he smirked. "I need say only a single line, yeah." The blondie walked casually around the side of Neji, keeping an eye on him the whole time. "Go over there." Deidara commanded, and Neji reluctantly distanced himself from the Iwa-nin and his trembling cousin.

For Hinata, it was becoming the horrifying scene all over again. She screamed to her cousin Neji as he went to sit against a large tree, making eye contact with her the entire time. She saw him mouth 'I'm sorry' and she knew he was doing this to keep her alive.

Covering the mouths on his hands carefully, Deidara grabbed Hinata's hair and twisted it. His small bird-like bit of clay hopped off her back, and stood still in front of her on the grass. Hinata cried in pain, and Neji's breath caught.

"Don't hurt her!" he yelled. Deidara looked up at him, and raised an eyebrow.

"What, you really expect me to make you go over there and then just stand here all day? Yeah... right. I liked what went on between us last year. Let's do it again, why don't we?" he suggested cruelly. Hinata screamed and tried to escape from the blonde Akatsuki's grasp, but he smirked and pushed her down to the ground.

It was all like so quiet. Sasuke leapt towards his brother, only to look into the older sibling's eyes and fall to the ground near Neji, eyes unfocused and mind wandering. The Uchiha boy writhed his body, and called out to Neji for help, but the Hyuuga was paralyzed in shock and fear, staring at the scene ahead him.

Tenten and Kiba were roughly knocked into the crowd, and lay unmoving on the ground. Naruto was soon to follow, trapped under Itachi's foot with two broken arms. The whole group then noticed the main problem, and focused on Deidara and Hinata.

The blonde boy pushed her to her stomach on the ground, and tore roughly at the binding on the back of her shirt. Hinata sobbed, eyes wide, and looked up at Neji for help. Her cousin was having close to a mental breakdown. There was almost no way out of this... either he waited and watched his cousin... his friend... no, Hinata... get _raped_ again, or... he'd try and save her, and the Akatsuki would kill her.

Tears welled up in his eyes for the first time since who knows when. He hunched over, unable to hide his fear any longer, and hollered her name. Hinata looked up at him, their watery lavender orbs making contact, and he nodded to her. That's all he could say.

'_I'll get you out of there.'_ he promised, and stood up. Deidara stopped trying to rip open the young girl's shirt, and looked up at Neji from beneath his bangs.

"What, you really want her to die, yeah?" he asked tauntingly. Neji ran an arm over his eyes to dry them, and shook his heas.

"No. Let her live. Kill... kill me, instead." he growled to the Iwagakure-runaway. Hinata stared at him. "Leave her alone! Get off her, and kill me!" Neji demanded. "Please!"

Deidara stood up warily, and roughly kicked Hinata to the side a bit. Neji walked towards his killer as Hinata sat up, startled. Neij looked at her with solemn eyes, and smiled through his pain and fear. He was doing it for her. He did... he did love her.

Neji stopped a few feet in front of the blonde man, and glanced at the ground. Within moments, Deidara had ripped Neji's kunai pouch off of him and pushed him to the ground in an identical position he had Hinata.

"Wha-?!" Neji gasped.

Deidara grinned menacingly and hit Neji in the side of the head, nearly driving the boy unconscious. Taking one of the Konoha-nin's own kunai, Deidara dragged the sharp end of the weapon down Neji's back, drawing blood and ripping his fishnet shirt to pieces.

"You didn't seriously think that I'd kill you on the spot first, did you, yeah? No no no... I'm going to have my fun with _you_ instead of her... it'll be funner to watch a grown kid like you scream... yeah. Get ready for a load of pain, hmm!" the blondie cackled.

Neji's eyes shot wide. _'This freak... this freak's gonna rape ME instead!'_ Neji nearly choked upon his thoughts, and struggled underneath the older blonde boy. Sensing the Hyuuga's fear, Deidara laughed aloud and ran the kunai slowly up the side of Neji's kapri shorts.

"Shit... GET OFF ME!" Neji yelled, panicking and yanking himself side to side to find any means of escape. Hinata cried his name out again, and scrabbled backwards away from the site. Tenten, still sub-conscious, looked up with eyes-halflidded as Hinata bumped against her. Taking in the sight, Tenten gasped and looked at Hinata.

"G-go get up K-Kiba... I th-think Sasuke's out of it, and don't go anywhere t-towards Itachi and N-Naruto... okay? Hurry!" Tenten squeaked in a panicked whisper. Hinata nodded, eyes wide and cheeks still stained red from tears as she galnced back at her cousin. The boy was in pain. Blood still wept gently from the cut line on his back, and Deidara was now attempting to shred the shirt, having postponed slicing her cousin's pants.

Hinata slowly scrambled over to Kiba, shaking her teammate gently on the shoulders. Kiba opened an eye and looked up at her.

"Whaddya want, Hinata?" he asked, as if her forgot where they were. A sudden cry from Neji made the dog-boy yelp in surprise, and he sat bolt upright. When Kiba saw Deidara crouching behind Hinata's cousin, nipping at the other Hyuuga's shoulders and neck with his teeth and hands, Kiba shuddered.

"How... dear god...:" Kiba whispered in shock. Neji writhed still underneath the other boy, arms trapped by his sides as his fishnet top finally fell away, leaving his top half open and vulnerable.

Neji thanked the fact that he was still lying on his stomach, though in a very uncomfortable position. If this was going to happen to him... well... he didn't really know what to do. With a trembling sigh of defeat, the flailing seventeen-year-old finally lay unmoving on the ground, breathing hard and praying that whatever was to come wouldn't hurt.

"Good doggie..." Deidara whispered in his ear, making Neji shy away. The younger boy hid his face, and turned away from Hinata, Kiba, and Tenten. He felt disguisting. The man above him laughed at Neji's behaviour, yanking at the long, still partly damp, chocolate-coloured hair as he tugged at the rim of Neji's black kapris, teasing the boy underneath.

Hinata and Kiba slowly crawled over to Tenten, and Hinata collapsed into the older girl's arms. Her poor cousin... he did it for her. He was out there, getting punished for what should have been hers... and though she was terrified, she had to admit that she loved a boy who would do so much to keep her safe.

As Deidara managed to tear Neji's long kapris down by his knees, Hinata found a surge of power deep inside her, and with amazing speed, ran at the Iwa-boy. It was all but expected. When she was close enough she lunged at him, and knocked him to the ground, holding a kunai above his throat.

"I'll k-k-kill y-you..." she growled, a strangely furious look in her eyes. Deidara glanced up at her in shock, almost unable to believe what had just happened. Too sudden, yeah.

"Doll...?" he asked, making sure that it was real. Hinata noticed from the corner of her eye Tenten dash to Neji, and Kiba threw himself at Itachi. Her cousin... wasn't moving. Tears pricked at her eyes as she glared back at Deidara, whos bangs had slipped over off his face, revealing a scope-covered eye.

"If you k-killed my c-c-cousin I'll kill you..." she whispered murderously, leaning her face in close to Deidara's own. She nearly laughed as he tried to move away. Whatever this strange power was that made her so strong... mentally and physically, for that matter... she thanked it.

Suddenly, her mind was flashed full of old memories and pictures... Neji... Kiba... Naruto, yes, all of them. She dropped the dagger beside the blonde Akatsuki's head, and it bounced once on the ground before finally laying still. Deidara looked up at her, confused.

"What's the matter, yeah? You gonna say 'no' to killin' me now?" he asked. Hinata looked down at him, then randomly stood up.

"Neji..." she cried, and ran over to her cousin, leaving Deidara laying without an idea of what was going on. Hinata kneeled at her cousin's side, and she looked into his face. His eyes were closed. Was he dead? She rolled him over on his stomach once again and checked the scar on his back. It had stopped bleeding... so why wasn't Neji responding?

Hinata stood up, shocked and sorrowful. She located her cousin's kunai puch and withdrew one extra-sharp kunai, and placed it at her own throat.

"Hinata, don't!" Tenten cried, and dashed towards her. Hinata shot a sad glare at the older kunoichi, and Tenten stopped in her tracks. With a long, resounding sigh that echoed around the clearing, Hinata said a few last words.

"Neji. I love you." she whispered quietly. She drew her arm back, and brought the weapon down upon her own neck.

An inch from her creamy peach skin, a strong arm held her hand and stopped the kunai from touching her.

"Love you too." came a voice from behind her, and she spun around in shock. There stood her cousin, tears streaming down his face and top still uncovered. "Please don't do that ever again, love." he cried. "Now, let's get that freak."

Hinata went to hug her battered cousin, but then stopped, looked down at the ground, and nodded. "Thank you." she replied, and turned to face the blondie once again, her eyes hard.

"Neji, I remember now, seeing you do a big attack, and you poked the chakra lines. The 124 Palms. If we could both do that together..."

"...we'll win." He finished. Hinata nodded. She walked up to Deidara, who had been brushing himself off.

"Two palms." she whispered, and stabbed him once in the stomach, and once on the left shoulder. The boy gasped, and glared at her.

"Four palms." Neji added, running up behind the blonde boy and attacking him from there. Hinata smiled at her cousin.

"Eight palms." They said together, and stabbed with their fore- and middle-fingers at the 22-year-old Akatsuki's thin body. "Sixteen palms." they muttered at the same time.

"Thirty-two palms." There was a minute's pause as they finished that number. "Sixty-four palms." Hinata swung around, stabbing the man who had tormented her in the neck. Neji whacked him in the temple, and Deidara cried out in pain.

"Hyakunijuhachi sho-- one hundred, twenty eight palms!" Hinata cried, recalling from her memory the lines and points as she battled Deidara alone. Neji stepped away for a moment, and prepared for the birth of a new attack. As she finished her round, he jumped in, and called for her to continue.

"Shugohakke-yuguure nihyakugojuni sho! Ninja Art, Twilight Protection of the 252 Palms--!" Neji yelled, and cracked Deidara's neck with a powerful uppercut thrust. The Iwa-nin cursed wildly, and looked down only to be attacked further by both Neji and Hinata together, and finally to be beaten down. With wildness in his eyes, Neji pushed Hinata aside gently and took the last point, the heart, slamming Deidara back against an extremely large tree.

The force of the last hit snapped the tree, and Neji and Hinata jumped out of the way as it crashed down, small branches impaling anyone unlucky enough to be under it- meaning, Deidara.

The blonde-haired missing-nin gasped as a small branch stuck strong through his Akatsuki cloak covering his stomach.

"This is it for me... yeah." he sighed as his vision faded and he lowered his head. "I guess I just wanted a bit of fun. Ah, well. See ya, yeah." And with that, Deidara's cloaked body slumped over, blood splattering his hard-earned Akatsuki cloth. (A/N: Wahhhhhhhh...) Neji and Hinata stood for a minute, watching the tree for any signs of movement. There was none. When all appeared to be ok, Neji collapsed.

"Ah-!" Hinata gasped, and fell to her knees beside her cousin. "Neji, are you alright? Did he... did he actually get to..." she sobbed, pulling the boy's arm and wondering if she should actually finish her sentence. Neji's eyelids fluttered, and he looked at her through guilt-ridden lavender eyes.

"No. I'm sorry, Hinata, I should have gotten to help you sooner... wait, ah, the others?" he exclaimed, and tried to roll over. He gasped aloud and winced in pain as the gashes on his back re-opened.

"D-don't move, Neji! I'll check them!" she yelped, holding him down. She frantically looked around the clearing, scanning for any other movement. Nobody else, not even the other two Akatsuki, were conscious. Sasuke was still out of it, his brother was slumped over the log, unmoving but breathing, Tenten had passed out thanks to a loss of blood coming from a large cut on her shoulder, Naruto was nowhere to be seen, the blue man was laying on the ground, fist still clenched around his sword. Under the sword was...

"Kiba!" Hinata cried, and told Neji to stay where he was. She got up frantically, and dashed over on tired legs to where he lay underneath the heavy Samehada. With much effort she pushed the sword aside, and shook her teammate.

"K-Kiba! Kiba, please wake up! Kiba? Kiba? Ki...ba...?" she sniffed, tears pricking her eyes and threatening to roll down her cheeks. She shook him harder, and flopped him over onto his back. She gasped and tears rolled down over the pale flesh of her cheeks, dripping onto her dirty clothes below.

A scorch mark, the kind made by explosions, was across his chest. In his burned black hand, was the head of a small clay bird. He had snapped it, and it had exploded.

Suddenly he drew a raspy breath, and squinted at her through darkened eyes.

"Hina...ta.." he whispered, glad to see her. "Naruto's... gone for help. You guys should be alright, okay?" he croaked out, and coughed hoarsely.

"You're gonna be okay, Kiba!" she panicked, and held his non-burned hand as to not hurt him further. He looked at her with sorry eyes, and shook his head no.

"Hinata, you know as well as I do... I'm dying. The explosion by this little bomb-bird," he said gruffly, motioning to his charred hand. "Went off too close to my throat. I breathed in the poisonous fumes. I'm _dying_."

Hinata shook her head frantically, eyes exploding with tears as she attempted to disagree with her long-time best-friend. "You c-can't leave me!" she cried. "You've g-got to stay!"

Kiba looked hard at her. "Lady Hinata, you have Neji now. He loves you. I know, and I'm sure you know too, you love him back. You said that yourself not too long ago. Yeah, sure, I loved you, but I could see you were falling for him. The most I could do for you to remember me is... try and prevent you from dying." he sighed, and smiled, closing his eyes. "And, hey... I'll see Akamaru, Shino and Kurenai-sensei soon. I'm happy. I'm not gonna die sad."

Hinata looked at him, surprised at his attitude. He really was dying... the last person that she had counted as family was finally going to leave her. "N-no! Kiba! Open your eyes! Kiba!" she begged, squeezing his hand. She heard a sorrowful sigh, and noticed that Neji had managed to drag himself over to them.

"Kiba... I'm sorry for all of this." he sighed, looking at the boy sadly. He was the one who had originally invited them out here. Neji felt responsible.

Kiba muttered a small 'hm' and cracked an eye open to look Neji in the face. He sighed, and closed the eye again. "Neji... keep her safe..." he said, and he head lolled to the side away from the two. Hinata cried aloud, and bent over, sobbing to her dead friend and listening to his receding heartbeat. Neji hugged his knees and put a hand on his cousin's back, in a small gesture of comfort. She looked up at his with mourning eyes, and Neji felt a strong urge of lust and desire for the younger blue-haired girl.

Through his own beginning tears, he brought he face down upon hers, and caught her rosy pink lips in a gentle, yet commanding kiss. Hinata sobbed, yet didn't dare to pull the older boy any farther then he was already, instead falling to the ground beside Kiba's soulless body and Neji fell along with her.

He wrapped his arms around her, and pressed his body against hers as they had the previous day. What time was it? That's right. He had used the new move at the brink of twilight, so... it was probably about two in the morning. As he whispered a word of comfort to the sobbing sixteen-year-old, the Black-Ops ANBU patrol burst into the clearing, and called for, 'survivors'.

Neji waved them down. Kakashi Hatake landed neatly beside him, his cousin, and Kiba's body, looking around the scene.

"Akatsuki..." he whispered. "Hyuuga Neji, right?" he pronounced in Japanese fashion. "You were on Gai's squadron. Can you tell me what happened here?" he asked, looking warily at the body beside Hinata.

"Yeah... we -six of us, Naruto Uzumaki, me, Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka, Tenten, and Sasuke Uchiha- got lost sometime before midnight, and so we sat on the log over there... the Akatsuki -three of them- attacked... and they attempted rape on me and my cousin. We attacked them back, killed one, and Kiba here was also... killed." he finished as Hinata burst into tears again in his arms.

An ANBU member called to one of his squadmates, and the two removed Kiba's body on a stretcher. All around them the ANBU were cleaning up and carrying away the other injured ninja, some even grabbing the abandoned picnic baskets and blanket. Kakashi nodded thanks to Neji, and pried Hinata away from him, the small girl protesting greatly.

"Hey, don't worry, Hinata. I expect we're both going back to the hospital. Hey Hatake, put her in the same room as me, please." Neji demanded, glancing at the indigo-haired girl as she too fell into unconsciousness. Neji could feel himself slipping away as an ANBU officer noted the others about the gash on his back. He closed his eyes, and wandered off to dreamless sleep.

It was about two days later when the chocolate-haired boy finally re-awoke. He couldn't move. He could feel small stitches in his back, and decided he didn't exactly _want_ to move, either. With a small noise of both distress and hunger, he propped himself up as well as he could against the pillows behind him.

"N-Neji...?" a small voice echoed, and he glanced over quite quickly to the other bed in the room, finally noticing that he wasn't alone.

"Hey... Hinata... how are you...?" he asked quietly, still half-asleep. Damn those stupid make-you-go-beddy-bye medicines. Returning his attention to his younger cousin, he saw her glance downwards.

"I'm okay... how's your legs feel?" she asked. Neji looked at her quizzically, and then paled. He couldn't feel his legs at all. Lifting up the covers and blushing when he realised he was in his boxers, he looked at his legs. They looked perfectly normal... but why couldn't he feel or move them? He looked back at Hinata, confused.

She sighed, and looked away again. "I woke up yesterday. I pretended to still be asleep, but... Neji... the doctors think you're paralyzed. They don't think you can stay a ninja anymore." she cried, and expected his reaction to be the worst.

It hadn't been as bad as she thought it might have been, but he obviously was upset. He gasped, and looked silently as his numb feet. It could actually be true. He had no feeling past about mid-way down his thighs.

"Oh." he commented quietly. So, his days as a ninja of Konoha were over. It just wasn't fair... but, how did it happen? "Do you know what caused it, Hinata?" he asked slowly, not making eye contact with her.

"It was because of the scar on your back... when Dei... Deidara... when he cut you then, he must have hurt an nerve or something important like that. I'm so sorry..." she added, sniffing a bit as Neji closed his eyes in discouragement.

Then Hinata remembered something that she had said a long, long time ago. She didn't know why she wanted to say it now... but for good luck.

"Neji, I believe in you.'Cause Neji, I know that you're smart, and strong, so you could get whatever you want, and I'd want to help you. I want to be just like you." she recited perfectly from mind. Neji shot his head up and looked at her with wide eyes.

"Cousin Neji, let me help you get better. I'll help you to walk again, and then we'll train again, and then we'll go see the graves, including... Kiba's... and we'll skip the picnic, but please Neji, I believe that you really can get better, and I want to help you. I want you to be a ninja again. Please." she begged.

Neji looked hard at her. She was willing to give everything to be with him, just as he did for her. And she had said that line... without having to be reassured. She wanted to help him...

As the noon sunlight came pouring in through the south-facing window in the hospital room, smiles and promises were exchanged. A young girl with indigo-blue hair wearing nothing but undergarments locked the hospital room door, and crawled into bed beside her cousin. With flushed faces and high hopes, she leaned up and kissed him, lips brushing across his gently before pressing into it and grabbing his neck.

In response, the boy with chocolate hair and unmoving legs pulled her down upon his bare chest, wrapping his protective arms around her as she sighed in pleasure within the kiss. If anything in the world was so innocent, it was this.

Damn, was he glad she could now remember.

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**Ahehehehe... the ending 2 paragraphs were kinda 'mushy' to write... but hey, that was the end! I might, MIGHT be writing a sequel to this about Hinata's time helping Neji... but not for a while.**

**OMG THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR READING, REVIEWING AND KEEPING ME WRITING! Sorry if the final chapter did not live up to your hopes, believe me it was heart-breaking to kill off my poor Dei-kun. And for any unanswered questions, Sasuke was merely was sent into the alternate-reality by his brother's mangekyo sharingan, Naruto had two broken arms (also thanks to Itachi-kun), Tenten was just unconscious, and is other than that perfectly fine, and Kiba was... K-Kiba was... WAHH dead. Itachi is in jail, blahbeddyblah, and Kisame was either with Itachi or also dead. Don't think he was dead. But ah well... his evil big sword Samehada is gone! Mwahaha.**

**My next story I will write will be somehow based off Deidara, and either Sasuke, Itachi, the other Akatsuki, Neji, or Hinata. My favourite pplz yet again... yeah. I will also take ANY (yes, any!)requests for Naruto/FMA stories, including any pairing (yaoi is included, no yuri, or pairings with Lee, Gai, anyone over the age of 30) and please don't make it too badly M rated. I find it extremely hard to write those, my nerves always get the worst of me and I freak out. Lol someone asked me to write a Kakashi/Sakura once upon a time, and I never posted it, it's still hidden away somewhere in my room.**

**ONCE AGAIN, I thank the people who have posted once per chapter. -x-Taylor-x- gets 3 happy yummy bluberry muffins today made by Itachi (hey, Soggy-kun is STILL out of it, thanks to Mr. Older Brother. Watch out for poison.). She POSTED EVERY CHAPTER YEAH! Thanx so much for everything you pplz said to encourage me! **

**Hope to hear from you again some time! Hey, if I get time, I might write an alternate ending or two- I'm thinkin one being extremely sad, the other M-rated if I don't freak out in the process!**

**Neh... I think that's about all. Oh yeah, about the 'Soggy-kun' and 'Neggi-kun' if I haven't already explained it...**

**During last summer, summer 2006, I took a trip to Nova Scotia, Canada. There, me and my cousins Yume and Shinko taught my sister about the three main characters of Naruto. She was easily able to remember Naruto and Sakura, but she ended up calling dear Sasuke 'Sausage-Gay' to remember his name.**

**Come October, I tested her again, and she forgot.**

**So, when I went to help her out with a hint, the glorious name 'Soggy-kun' was invented... I said 'Sa' (sah) to help her remember Sasuke, and she went... **

"**SOGGY!"**

**Hey, it was close enough. That was the birth of the 'Soggy muffins'. Yep. And my sister still hates the show Naruto (actaully, she hates all animes... ah well). 'Neggi' was originally 'Negi', a cute spelling mistake made by my cousin Yume. She don't like Neji. I turned 'Negi' into 'Neggi' quite happily. I think it's cute. So, yeah. Following this is a little chat between the characters, and a personal dictionary for the japanese words used. 'Kay? Thanks!**

**Your red-headed kunoichi,**

**Keruseya Natsuki (Iwagakure Nin- runaway to Konoha... I should write a story to explain!)**

**SEYA-SAN 3 3**

**----------------------------------------------------------------**

Dei-kun: YOU KILLED ME!

Kiba: ME TOO!

Soggy-kun: MOI AUSSI!

Everyone stares at Soggy.

Kiba: You didn't die.

Naruto: HOLY SHIT SOGGY-KOI, YOU SPEAK FRENCH!

Neggi-kun: Making out with cousin in corner.

Hinata: Blushing OMG Neggi, stop trying to suffocate me!

Ita-kun, Tenten, Kisame: Hey... YOU ALMOST LEFT US OUT!

HawtKakashi: Me too!

Soggy-kun: Moi aussi!

Everyone stares at Soggy.

Ita-kun: You dobe.

Soggy-kun: TOMATO/BLUBERRY MUFFINS FOR ALL!

EVERYONE: THE END! FIN! SAYONARA, TO OYASUMI NASAI!!!

The translator

**Kunoichi-** female ninja

**Shinobi-** ninja (f/m)

**-Koi** or **Koibito-** '-love' or girlfriend/boyfriend (LOL Naruto's gay!!)

**Moi aussi- **in french, 'me too'.

**Dobe-** (ehehe... I think it's just Sasuke's nickname for Naruto.)

**Nin-** ninja (duh)

**Hyakunijuhachi sho**- 128 Palms

**Shugohakke-yuguure nihyakugojuni sho-** Twilight Protection of the 252 Palms (I made it up!)

**Kapris- **err... it's English. They're basically pants cut off a foot or so below the knees. Someone asked me about it, so I posted it.

**Kunai-** A small, dangerously pointy knife-like weapon. Originated in Japan.

**Shuriken- **Throwing stars.

**Sharingan- **The kekkai genkai of the Uchiha Clan, ability to copy the opponent's move.

**Mangekyo Sharingan- **Sharingan with three tomoe (black dot-thingies) that can be used to send somebody into an alternate reality for days on end, by looking them in the eye. In this fic, only Itachi possesses the Mangekyo Sharingan, and uses it on Sasuke after the mist has evaporated.

**Byakugan**- The kekkai genkai of the Hyuuga Clan, ability to see the opponent's chakra lines, tenketsu, keirakukai, and basically see through anything.

**Kekkai genkai- **Bloodline limit/trait.

**Chakra-** (don't really know how to explain...) The power that the ninja in _Naruto_ use to make their attacks work.

**Tenketsu- **361 Chakra points along the keirakukei that are no bigger then the prick of a pin. When they are hit, they can halt the flow of an opponent's chakra.

**Keirakukei-** A network of chakra lines that are evrywhere in the body, wrapped around vital organs and the organs that manipulate chakra. The keirakukei allows chakra to move about within the body at the user's will.

**Sayonara, to oyasumi nasai- **direct translation: Goodbye, and good night!

_**THANK YOU!!!!**_

_**Seya-san**_


End file.
